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DESTINY OF MAN 



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THE 



DESTINY OF MAN. 



BY 



WILLIAM ERW-IN. 



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2ML 



NEW-YORK : 
PRINTED BY S. W. GREEN, 16 AND 18 JACOB STREET. 

1872. 

9T 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 

WILLIAM ERWIN, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



The Library 
of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



PREFACE. 



This work on the destiny of man would probably 
never have been written had there been a possi- 
bility of discussing the question of man's immortality 
through the religious press. Every attempt at this 
by the author has been denied. Several articles have 
been prepared, and their publication has been refused. 
The integrity of his belief not being able to shield 
him from the imputation of heterodoxy, and finding 
no opportunity to justify his theory, and ever labor- 
ing under the disadvantage of distrust, from the idea 
of not being entirely orthodox — hence has arisen the 
necessity for this publication. 

It should be expressly understood by all that the 
honor of God, the good of man, and the welfare of the 
church of Christ, have induced the author to elabo- 
rate this idea of non-immortality in sin. 

That man is a candidate for immortality, that 
he is not and can not be immortal until the resurrec- 
tion, and then can only be immortal in Christ, the 
author is satisfied every reader, who is dispossessed 
of prejudice, will believe, after he has carefully and 
thoroughly perused this treatise. 

I ask no man's credence for this theory, only as he 
shall find it plainly and positively set forth in God's 



IV PREFACE. 

word. Stupid, and positively cruel and injurious, 
must that person be to himself, who will not yield his 
personal conceits, prejudices, and ignorances for the 
eternal truth and wisdom of God. 

Every reader will see and be satisfied that the au- 
thor does not seek to establish his theory by assump- 
tions or illegitimate deductions : on the contrary, the 
superficial as well as the closest critical reader will 
be convinced that the sentiment of man's present 
non-immortality and the eternal non-immortality of 
the ungodly is as definitely, positively, and abundantly 
set forth in the revelation of God to man, as the im- 
mortality of the righteous is assured through the 
sacrifice and mediation of Christ. God's word alone 
can evolve man's destiny, and by it alone I wish to 
abide. Truth is eternal ; error and delusion may not 
be apprehended until it may be too late to avoid the 
sequence. Then let the careful perusal and diligent 
study of the Scriptures with a pure integrity form 
our opinions as to man's futurity. 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 



Of all questions ever broached to or contemplated 
by the mind of man, the most important and all- 
absorbing is, What is the destiny of man ? It can 
have only a semblance of rivalry in its twin compan- 
ion, What his origin ? Both alike must neces- 
sarily elude all possible philosophic research, or mere 
human cogitation or human solution. As the thing 
formed can not be expected to be cognizant of its 
formation, equally so its destiny can not be under- 
stood or positively known without the wisdom of the 
author. However elaborate and profound may be 
the thought and research of men, however plausible 
or probable the theories conjectured, man's destiny 
can only be evolved and made known by the 
wisdom of God who created him for his own glory. 
Yet men presumptuous in their manifest weakness, 
when all their surroundings not only manifest but 
afford positive proof of mutation and passing away, 
when the revelation and word of God emphatically 
declare that life and immortality are brought to light 
by the Gospel, will trust to their own reasonings, 
amuse themselves in their own imaginings, and be- 



6 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

wilder themselves by the multiplicity of their theories. 
That science and philosophy are incapable of solving 
this sublime question of man's destiny with any de- 
gree of certainty, may be seen by the various theories 
advanced and supported by the learned in different 
parts and ages of the world. If we refer to the oldest 
hypotheses of the east, to the Vedas of the Brahmins, 
and the Zendavesta of the Parsees, to those venera- 
ble but fanciful repositories of learning, from which 
the Greek schools drew their first draughts of meta- 
physical science, we discover the idea of the immor- 
tality of the soul ; but upon the mystical idea of emana- 
tion or immanation as a part of the great soul of uni- 
verse ; issuing from it at birth, and being reabsorbed 
into it at the death of the body ; being regarded in- 
capable of an individual essence in a separate state 
of existence. " If we turn from Persia, Egypt, and 
Hindostan to Arabia, to the fragrant groves and 
learned shades of Dedan and Teman, from which it 
is certain that Persia, and highly probable that Hin- 
dostan derived its first polite literature, we shall 
find the whole subject left in as blank and barren 
silence as the deserts by which they are surrounded ; 
or if touched upon, only touched upon to betray 
doubt and sometimes disbelief. The tradition indeed 
of a future state of retributive justice seems to have 
reached the schools of this part of the world, and to 
have been generally, though not perhaps universally, 
accredited ; but the future existence it alludes to is 
that of the resurrection of the body, and not the 
survival of the soul after the body's dissolution. The 
Greek schools deriving their earliest metaphysics from 



ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS. 7 

India, for the most part contended for the immortal 
and incorruptible nature of the soul, thus ignoring 
and reprobating the doctrine of the resurrection ot 
the body ; on this account St. Paul, in the great square 
of Athens, introduced in his usual style and eloquence 
the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, who 
was taken by the philosophers who listened to him 
to the Areopagus, to inquire of him of the new doc- 
trine which he had been presenting to the people. 

" This Indian idea of emanation and final absorption 
of the human soul into the great soul of the universe, 
was the peculiar tenet of the Stoics. The ultimate 
tendency of the Pythagorean creed was the same, 
though previous to its final absorption it was suppos- 
ed to have various transmigrations into different 
bodies. But in its final absorption into the divine 
essence, it lost completely all personal or individual 
identity. 

" The Platonic theory imbibed precisely the same 
doctrine. Lorenzo de' Medici is well known to have 
been warmly attached to this sublime mysticism ; 
yet he has made it a foundation for some of the 
sweetest and most elevated devotional poetry that 
the world possesses. His magnificent address to the 
Supreme Being has seldom been equaled : 

' Father Supreme ! oh ! let me climb 

That sacred seat, and mark sublime 

The essential fount of life and love, 

Fount, whence each good, each pleasure flows. 

Oh ! to my view thyself disclose, 

The radiant heaven thy presence throws ; 

Oh ! lose me in the light of love ! 



8 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

• Flee, flee, ye mists ! let earth depart ! 
Raise me and show me what thou art, 
Great sum and centre of the soul ! 
To thee each thought in silence tends ; 
To thee the saint in prayer ascends ; 
Thou art the source, the guide, the goal, 
The whole is thine and thine the whole/ 

" While such, however, was the philosophical tradi- 
tion, the popular tradition appears to have been of a 
different kind, and as much more ancient as it was 
extensive. It taught that the disembodied spirit 
became a ghost as soon as it is separated from the 
corporeal frame ; a thin, misty, aerial form, somewhat 
larger than life, with a feeble voice, shadowy limbs, 
knowledge superior to what was possessed while in 
the flesh ; capable under particular circumstances of 
rendering itself visible, and retaining so much of its 
former features as to be recognized upon its appari- 
tion ; in a few instances wandering about for a certain 
period of time after death, but for the most part con- 
veyed to a common receptacle, situated in the inte- 
rior of the earth, and denominated Sheol, Hades, Hell, 
or the world of shades. Some locating this recepta- 
cle of spirits in the heart of the earth, some in a re- 
mote corner of the earth on its surface, and some in 
the clouds. 

" Putting by all traditionary information, however, 
there were many philosophers in Greece who at- 
tempted to reason on the subject, and seemed desir- 
ous of abiding by the result of their own argument. 
Of these, the principal are Socrates, Plato, and 
Epicurus. The first is by far the most entitled to 
our attention, for the simplicity and clearness of his 



ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS. 9 

conception and strength of belief. Unfortunately, 
we have no satisfactory relic of the great chain of 
induction by which he was led to so correct and 
happy a conclusion ; for we must not confound his 
ideas with those of Plato, who has too frequently 
intermixed his own with them. From the lucid and 
invaluable Memorabilia of his disciple Xenophon, 
however, we have historical evidence for affirming 
that, whatever may have been the train of his reason- 
ing, it led him to a general assurance that the human 
soul is allied to the Divine Being, yet not by a parti- 
cipation of essence, but by a similarity of nature, and 
hence that the existence of good men will be con- 
tinued after death, in a state in which they will be 
rewarded for their virtue. Upon the future condi- 
tion of the wicked, Socrates appears to have said but 
little ; he chiefly speaks of it as less happy than that 
of the virtuous, and it has hence been conceived that, 
as he thought the sole hope of immortality to the 
good man was founded upon his becoming assimi- 
lated to the divine nature, he may have imagined 
that the unassimilated soul of the wicked would 
perish with the body ; and the more so as he allowed 
the same common principles or faculty of reason, 
though in a subordinate degree, to all animals as to 
man ; and hence again gave sufficient proof that he 
did not regard this principle as necessarily incor- 
ruptible." 

" The soul of the Platonic system is a much more 
scholastic compound than that of the Socratic — it 
is a motley triad, produced by an emanation from the 
Deity or Eternal intelligence, uniting itself with 



IO THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

some portion of the soul of the world and some por- 
tion of matter. In his celebrated PJicedo y Plato dis- 
tinctly teaches and endeavors to prove that this 
compound structure had a preexistent being, and is 
immortal in its own nature, and as it did exist ante- 
cedently to its union with the body, it probably will 
continue to exist in the same manner after death." 

" In the writings of Aristotle there is nothing 
which decisively determines whether he thought the 
human soul mortal or immortal ; the former is most 
probable, from the notion he entertained concerning 
its nature and origin, but there is no proof that he 
supposed it would continue after the death of the 
body." 

" The great opponent of the soul's immortality, 
.however, among the Greeks, was Epicurus. He con- 
sidered it to be a fine, elastic, sublimated, spiritual- 
ized gas or aura, composed of the most subtle parts 
of the atmosphere, as caloric, pure air, and vapor, 
introduced into the system in the act of respiration. 
The soul thus produced, Epicurus affirmed, must be 
material, because we can trace it issuing from a 
material source ; because it exists, and exists alone, 
in a material system, is nourished by material food, 
grows with the growth of the body, becomes matui- 
ed with its maturity, declines with its decay ; and 
hence, whether belonging to man or brute, must die 
with its death." 

" The philosophers of Rome present us with no- 
thing new, for they merely followed the dogmas of 
those of Greece. Cicero, though he has given us 
much of the opinions of other writers upon the 



ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS. II 

nature and duration of the soul, has left us almost as 
little of his own as Aristotle has done. Upon the 
whole, he seems to have chiefly favored the system 
of Plato. Seneca and Epictetus were avowed and 
zealous adherents to the principles of the Stoics ; 
and Lucretius to those of Epicurus." 

" Upon the whole, philosophy seems to have made 
but an awkward handle of the important question 
before us. A loose and glimmering twilight ap- 
pears to have been common to most nations ; but 
the more men attempted to reason upon it, at least 
with a single exception or two, the more they doubt- 
ed, and because involved in difficulties, they believed 
and disbelieved, they hoped and they feared ; and life 
passed away in a state of perpetual anxiety and 
agitation." 

" In effect, the whole of the actual knowledge pos- 
sessed at any time appears to have been tradition- 
ary ; for we may well doubt whether, without such a 
basis to have built upon, philosophy would ever have 
started any well-grounded opinion in favor of a future 
state." 



12 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 



I have been thus free to make this voluminous 
quotation from Good's Book of Nature, because it 
seems to be as faithful and true an embodiment of 
the views of ancient philosophers on this subject as 
could be given. And from this view of the theories 
of men in all ages of the world, we come with a good 
degree of certainty to this result, that the wisdom of 
men, unaided by the divine, could never come to 
any satisfactory conclusion about their own destiny. 
We can not fail to appreciate the statement of God's 
word, that " life and immortality are brought to light 
by the Gospel." Then, as the welfare of our race, 
and the honor of God to justify his ways to man, is 
involved in the true solution of this question, (for I 
deem it no more vital to the hopes of man than to 
the justice of the Deity,) let us approach the source 
of wisdom, and with all the intensity of desire look 
into the word of life, to realize the fondness of our 
hopes. Nothing is more evident than that man 
knows nothing of his origin or his destiny, but as he 
derives it from the Scriptures. As creatures acting 
an important part in the drama of life, a theatre amid 
vast extremes, a boundless past and an illimitable 
future, independent of creeds and imbibed prejudi- 
ces, let us stand forth humbly yet boldly before the 
mirror of truth, and have reflected back upon us our 
true origin and destiny. 

After God, by his almighty fiat,, said, " Let there be 
light, and there was light," and had manifested his in- 



MOSES. 13 

finite power, wisdom, and goodness in the production 
of a world in all the beauty and sublimity of its 
arrangements and productions, he said, " Let us make 
man," the crowning glory of this revolving scene, 
" in our own image." Now listen — in silence hear, un- 
derstand, appreciate, and believe. God speaks. Let 
not his truth be dimmed, by finite views. The author 
of language uses his own phraseology. Let not man 
attempt correction. God's word has no ambiguity or 
variations. It is one in its entirety, it is the same in 
its parts. It is symmetrical ; an infinite unit, coin- 
ciding with its Author. Listen to God's announce- 
ment of man's formation, Genesis 2 : 17, "And the 
Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and 
•breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man 
became a living soul." Before we pass further, let us 
consider this announcement. " The Lord God formed 
man out of the dust of the ground." It is universally 
conceded that this simply means that God formed 
the physical nature of man, complete in all its parts, 
out of the dust of the ground. Man at this stage, 
stands forth entire, in all his physical arrangement ; 
though still inanimate, yet a fitted subject for anima- 
tion. Then God " breathes into his nostrils the 
breath of life ; " and man becomes what ? " A living 
soul." What becomes a living soul ? The man per- 
fectly formed before, though at that time inanimate, 
now, through the influence of inspiration, becomes a 
living soul ; or, in other words, a living animal, as the 
same term is used and translated in other passages 
in the Bible. Does a living soul mean an immortal 
soul ? If so, who can affirm that a living dog or a 



14 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

living horse is not an immortal dog or an immortal 
horse ? If, then, a living soul does not mean an 
immortal soul, who can affirm that man when God 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, became 
or was constituted an immortal soul, when God 
expressly affirms. that he became or was constituted 
simply a living soul ? Think you infinite Wisdom 
did not at that time fully understand the import of 
his expression, as the wisdom of man can understand 
it now ? If at the time of man's formation he was 
constituted an immortal being, would not the veracity 
of God have impelled him to announce man an im- 
mortal being, instead of a living being, who is less 
than an immortal ? How could the veracity of God 
allow him to announce man in his formation a living 
being, if he had constituted him an immortal soul ? 
Would the principle of veracity justify a man in say- 
ing he had made a pop-gun, when he had in fact 
forged a cannon ? When God announces a fact, why 
will men seek to controvert it ? If, then, God in the 
beginning did not make man immortal, has he any- 
where in his word declared that he has made him so 
since ? I doubt whether any one dare affirm it. If 
there is, let him show the evidence. I think, in the 
absence of any further revelation on the subject of 
man's destiny, it could not be inferred that man was 
immortal ; but his non-immortality would be assured. 
Let us proceed in the narration, and see if the all- 
wise Being does not most positively affirm his crea- 
ture man is not immortal. Our heavenly Father pro- 
ceeds to give us a further account of our great pro- 
genitor. He says his care and love were such for his 



MOSES. 1 5 

creatures, Adam and Eve, " that he planted a garden 
eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom 
he had formed. And out of the ground made the 
Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the 
sight, and good for food ; the tree of life in the midst 
of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and 
evil. And the Lord God took the man, and put him 
into the garden of Eden, to dress it and keep it. And 
the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Ot 
every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. 
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 
thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the day that thou 
eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die ;" or, as the 
Hebrew and marginal reading is, " Dyings thou shalt 
surely die." That is, unquestionably, If you eat of the 
interdicted tree, your disobedience will plant in your 
system the principle of decay, corruption, and will 
eventuate in death, the loss of the life or animation 
you have received. Did man disobey, eat of the for- 
bidden fruit, and incur the promised penalty ? Each 
member of the human family can attest he did. Its 
baleful influence is felt by all ; and to his Creator's 
inquiry, " Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I 
commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat ?" the 
answer was, " The woman thou gavest to be with me, 
she gave me of the tree and I did eat." Terrible 
wound ! all nature felt the shock. All concede that 
by this act of disobedience man became a rebel, im- 
pure, unholy, unfit for heaven or happiness, and had 
indisputably forfeited all claim to life, and was under 
the sentence of death. What did the Author of his 
being do under these circumstances ? Listen ; and 



1 6 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

let not prejudice or preconceived opinions prevent 
the reception of the truth of God. God speaks ; let 
no man reply against his word. " Behold, the man 
is become as one of us, to know good and evil. And 
now, lest he put forth his hand, and take of the tree 
of life, and eat, and live forever ; therefore the Lord 
God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till 
the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove 
out the man : and he placed at the east of the garden 
of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword, which 
turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of 
life." 

Thus we see the great progenitor of the human 
family, and in him all his posterity, eating the for- 
bidden fruit, becoming unholy, losing the image of 
his Maker, under the sentence of death, driven from 
the tree of life and barred against its approach. 
And what for ? That he, having become a sinner, a 
rebel against the government of God, should not put 
forth his hand and take of the tree of life, and live 
forever in his sin and rebellion. The language is j 
" Lest he stretch forth his hand, and take of the tres 
of life, and live forever ;" that is as much as to say he 
shall not take of the tree of life and live forever in 
his sin ; or man, a sinner, shall not be immortal. I 
ask my brethren, and all who have thought man was 
immortal, is not this the true statement and exegesis 
of this revelation ? Does not God say that he drove 
man from Eden, where the tree of life grew, that 
man should not eat of the tree of life as a sinner, and 
so live forever as a rebel ? Can any intelligent, 
honest man infer the immortality of man from this 



MOSES. 17 

revelation of man's origin and destiny ? As true as 
man has fallen, and God is his maker, and has given 
this account of his formation, condition, and destiny, 
man is not immortal. 

Should any, from preconceived notions, hesitate to 
receive this, let me propound this question : Had 
God, after man had transgressed, not driven Adam 
from Eden, and not barred him from the tree of life, 
and he had eaten of the tree, would he have been 
any more or less than immortal in his sin ? It could 
not have restored the lost image of his Maker ; it 
could not have absolved him from his sin ; for God 
expressly affirms that " without the shedding of 
blood there is no remission of sin." The virtue in 
the tree of life was to prevent decay or corruption, 
and give an endless perpetuity of being. If it had 
not this, and had no power for the purgation of sin, 
why should man have been debarred its approach ? 
The tree of life was the ordained means for the assu- 
rance of an everlasting life. Without it man can not 
be immortal, and God says he drove him from it lest 
he should be immortal in sin. 

Will any one reply, Man did live nearly a thou- 
sand years without having access to the tree of life ? 
In reply, I would first say he was permitted to have 
another probation through the influence of the pro- 
mise of an atonement, " The seed of the woman 
shall bruise the serpent's head." In the second 
place, notwithstanding the pledge of an atonement, 
man, not having access to the tree of life, at last has 
to yield to the influence of the virus imbibed through 
disobedience, and die. "Thou shalt surely die." 



1 8 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

" Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," is 
the pledge for disobedience. This is the conse- 
quence of sin, and the loss of the influence of the 
tree of life. 

Does not this truth force itself upon every reader's 
mind, that God drove and barred man, after his 
disobedience, from the tree of life, which afforded 
virtue for a perpetual life, that he should not eat 
thereof and live forever as a sinner ? If so, does it 
not appear that man, by this act of impiety toward 
his God, lost the very means for a perpetual anima- 
tion or conscious being, which his Creator had pro- 
vided for him while innocent ? Then if God in the 
infinitude of his mercy and love devises a plan by 
which man is redeemed, by giving his Son to die and 
have a resurrection, that man might have a resurrec- 
tion to a new life ; if man forfeits this new, purchased 
life by sin, how can he, if this forfeiture continues, 
avoid the second death ? If disobedience to God 
caused the loss of life, or death of Adam and all his 
posterity, will not the forfeiture of the new or resur- 
rected life, by sin, cause the death of the resurrected 
life, which is denominated the second death ? Then 
if this purchased, resurrected life, being forfeited, fall 
under the power of the second death, and there is no 
redemption from the same, will it not be an eternal 
death ? Most assuredly. I ask every student of the 
Bible if it is not true that there is no promise of a 
restorer from this death. A revivification or a resur- 
rection from the second death is impossible, as Christ 
only died to restore what mankind had lost in 
Adam's sin, and provide for the conciliation of other 



MOSES. 19 

forfeitures of this new life by complying with certain 
special conditions, which are repentance and faith in 
the Lord Jesus Christ 

Hence it is evident, from this account of man's for- 
mation and destiny, that he is not immortal by nature, 
and, having become a sinner, can not be immortal, 
only through the atonement. Thus we see Christ 
becomes the tree of life ; the Scriptures affirming 
" that as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he 
given to the Son to have life in himself." Therefore 
we hear Christ saying to the Jews, who were under 
the sentence of death, " Ye will not come unto me that 
ye might have life." " I am the resurrection and the 
life ; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, 
yet shall he live." 

As we are contemplating the revelation which our 
Creator has given us of our origin, condition, and des- 
tiny, let us not become wearied with a full considera- 
tion of its import. We here view man ushered into 
being by an omnipotent power : first inanimate, then 
animated — that is, possessed of life. The condition 
of his being is, Be obedient and live, or disobedient 
and die ; that is, lose your life, which had just been 
received at the hand of his Creator. As to the nature 
of life, no one as yet has been able to define it. It has 
eluded the wisdom of the most learned and philo- 
sophic of every age. No one can grasp it, no one 
can analyze it, no one can describe it. The most that 
any one can say of it is, it is a consciousness of being. 
The possessor lives and is conscious ; the opposite 
of life is death ; to die is to lose this life or conscious- 
ness of being. I am to be understood as speaking 



20 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

of animal life. I am aware there is a vegetable life 
which, so far as man knows, is not conscious of exist- 
ence. This, too, is undefinable. The life we are to 
have in view, in this investigation, is the animal life, 
or that life that pertains to the human species. 

Through the subtlety and deceptive falsehood of an 
enemy, man yields his integrity and becomes disobe- 
dient ; consequently, according to the veracity of his 
Maker, he must and will die. This death will be 
eternal, provided there shall be no redemption there- 
from. Through the love, compassion, and wisdom of 
God, a worthy substitute is promised and provided ; 
not to free man from dying, as that was pledged ; but 
to prevent this forfeiture of life, and its penalty, which 
is death, from being eternal. In the fullness of time 
God sends " his Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, 
that he might condemn sin in the flesh." With the 
wonders of the birth and life of this personage, to- 
gether with the appalling grandeur of his death and 
the transcendent glory of his resurrection, all are con- 
versant. Jesus dies. What for ? To prevent the 
death incurred by Adam's sin from being eternal ; 
to cancel the guilt of the original sin, and give a new 
life, which is a new probation for immortality, and to 
manifest this new or purchased life in the resurrec- 
tion at the last day. If in the resurrection this new, 
purchased life is not found forfeited, it will not be 
hurt by the second death. If, in the solemn scenes 
of the final judgment, this new life, purchased by the 
death and resurrection of the Son of God, shall be 
found forfeited by sin, in every such case it must fall 
under the power of the second death ; and, as the 



MOSES. 2 1 

Bible says there is no more sacrifice for sin, there 
can be no resurrection from this second death, it must 
of necessity be eternal. 

To all such as have no doubt but that this second 
death is a complete and eternal loss of conscious 
being, the question is settled that the finally impeni- 
tent are not immortal. 

Why should there be a doubt in any mind that is 
conversant with God's word ? Man had just been 
formed and received the principle of life from his 
Creator ; together with his consciousness he was as- 
sured by God that he was a living creature ; if he was 
obedient to the law of his being, he should live. Can 
any one fail to understand that, if this life does not 
cease, through the influence of death, it will live for- 
ever ? It will be eternal. If Adam should be dis- 
obedient, the pledge was, "Thou shalt surely die." 
What can this mean but the loss of his conscious 
being, or life that he had just received ? Can any 
man think, or is there the least possible reason for 
him to think, that Adam did not regard it in this 
light ? Adam could not have had the slightest con- 
ception of the want of happiness or unhappiness ; all 
was peace, harmony, and love. It is not unreason- 
able to suppose that he could have some idea what the 
loss of being was, he having so recently received his. 
There is no possibility of misunderstanding the judge 
who sentences a culprit to die at a given time. Was 
there any reason why Adam should not have under- 
stood the pledge of his Maker, if he should be dis- 
obedient he should die ? They mean the same in both 
cases : loss of conscious being. There should not be 



22 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

a creature in the universe so lost to all sense of pro- 
priety as to deny it but the devil, who said, " Thou shalt 
not surely die." That is, thou shalt be immortal. With 
this view of this divine revelation on this important 
subject, how just, how wise, how merciful, how loving 
appear the ways of God to his creature man ! The 
entire resources of the divine Being brought into re- 
quisition for man's formation, welfare, and happiness. 
In his physical, mental, and moral powers complete, 
and endowed with a freedom of will or volition that 
constitutes him the sole arbiter of his destiny, the 
very law or condition of his being would seem to 
settle, without a doubt, his immortality or non-immor- 
tality. Possessed of complete volition — free to be 
obedient or disobedient — consequently free to live or 
die, how can it be conceived that man is immortal, 
in view of the contingency of sin ? If man makes a 
forfeiture of life by disobedience, by what idea of con- 
sistency can he lose less or more than the life of his 
whole being ? If, then, it is possible for man to lose 
his life or his entire being, he is not immortal. 

At this point we are met with a specious assump- 
tion, " The soul of man is indestructible." Whence 
came this idea ? Certainly not from the word of 
God ; if not, it is as powerless as the one who offers 
it. Christ says, " Fear not man, who is able to de- 
stroy the body, and after that has no more that he 
can do ; but rather fear him" (God) " who is able 
to destroy soul and body in hell." How a man 
that has read and believes this declaration of our 
Saviour could be induced to make this assumption 
or declaration — that the soul of man is indestructible, 



MOSES. 23 

I can not understand. It is a positive denial of 
our Saviour's word ; for he says, " God is able to de- 
stroy soul and body in hell." Those who so wantonly 
contradict our Saviour are not content to say the soul 
of man is indestructible, but they add to it another 
untenable assumption to make good their position. 
They say the soul is immaterial, therefore indestruc- 
tible, and therefore immortal. However men may la- 
bor to prove the immateriality of the soul, they never 
will, as they never have. No proof could be adduced 
to this effect. Mr. Drew's sophistry on this subject is 
the most attenuated I have ever seen ; and it comes 
infinitely short of its object, and to a clear thinker 
can not fail to appear positively absurd. When a 
deduction is dependent upon two points or positions, 
they must both be proven beyond a question, or the 
deduction is worthless. The immateriality of the 
soul being untenable, then the indestructibility of the 
soul does not follow of course. The indestructibility 
of the soul can not be true, for Christ affirms God 
can destroy it. So both of the former premises 
being untrue, the conclusion that is deduced from 
them — the immortality of the soul — manifestly is not 
true. The argument might be reversed as well as 
to stand as it does, and say, the soul being immortal 
is indestructible, therefore immaterial. It is astonish- 
ing that men will be so reckless on a question of so 
much importance. Their point seems to be the aim 
of some men, regardless of the responsibility. There 
is no fact more evident than that the body can be 
destroyed for a time, and why not for eternity ? If 
it is not unphilosophical or unscriptural to suppose 



2 % 4 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

that the body may meet with such a catastrophe, 
why is it not possible for the soul ? Both having 
the same origin and Author, why not the same des- 
tiny ? and especially when Christ affirms both alike 
can be destroyed by God. 

Let us again look at this question in the light of 
this revelation. God pledges his veracity to Adam 
that if he eats of the tree of the knowledge of good 
and evil, he shall die. There is no possible contin- 
gency for the avoidance of this death in case of sin. 

» 

He must die. Now, without the promise of a Re- 
deemer, could Adam, from aught that appears in the 
Scriptures, have had the least ground for the hope of 
a future revivification ? Certainly not. Then if he 
falls under the power of the second death, how can 
he hope to have a resurrection from it without a 
Saviour ? He can have none. Again, if Adam had 
received from his Maker the same account of his for- 
mation, responsibility, and destiny, as Moses receiv- 
ed and has handed down to us as a divine revelation, 
could he have conceived or in any wise anticipated 
if he sinned, and having no promise of a Restorer, 
that he could or would be subjected to a state of 
everlasting burning in a lake of fire and brimstone ? 
Impossible ! If this had been the case, and Adam 
had received such a fearful responsibility and relation 
to the divine law without his consent, would not the 
Author of his being, and its conditions and responsi- 
bilities, and who reveals himself possessed of infinite 
benevolence and love ; who counts the hairs of our 
head, and will not allow a sparrow to fall to the 
ground without his notice ; who placed his bow in 



MOSES. 25 

the heavens as a token of his love, and to allay any 
fears as to a recurring deluge ; I say, would such a 
Being of love leave his creature man — the image of 
his glory — thus exposed, unapprised and unwarned 
of such a dreadful doom, in the event of his dis- 
obedience ? Never ! Reason forbids such an idea. 
Justice forbids it. Love ignores the hideous 
thought. It is a libel on the Eternal, forged in 
Eden by the arch principle of evil, " Thou shalt 
not surely die ;" thou art immortal. May God for- 
give the prejudice that harbors it ! The Author of 
our being says expressly, " Thou shalt surely die." 
What can be more wonderful, or really astounding, 
than when such expressions are found in the Scrip- 
tures, " Thou shalt surely die," " The soul that sin- 
neth, it shall die," and these, too, conceded to have 
come from the mouth of God, that men who profess 
to revere this word should proclaim the immortality 
of the sinner, and adopt the language of the father 
of lies, " Thou shalt not surely die" ? What does 
the expression, "Thou shalt not surely die," mean, if 
it does not mean thou art immortal ? Or what does 
the expression, " Thou shalt surely die," mean, if it 
does not, Thou art not immortal ? Which should 
be received as truth by the Christian ? The affir- 
mation of his heavenly Father, or the declaration of 
the devil ? Here they are directly opposed to each 
other — each using terms of the same import, 01 
rather, the same terms. I ask, with all candor and 
solemnity, the advocate for the immortality of the 
sinner, which did speak the truth ? If God spake 
the truth, are you no|; in grror ? If the devil spake 



26 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

the truth, do you not advocate the same truth — the 
immortality of the sinner ? God says, " He that is 
not with me is against me ; and he that gathereth 
not with me scattereth abroad." 

Please allow a partial repetition or further consid- 
eration of this same idea. Had Adam suffered the 
penalty of his infraction of the divine law, by dying 
before he received the promise of a Saviour, could the 
righteousness of the law have been so vindicated that 
he would be entitled to, or could have received, a new- 
ness to life, without an atonement for his guilt ? Clear- 
ly not ; else the gift of God, in the person and sacrifice 
of his Son, had been superfluous and in vain. Is it 
not evident that man could not make an atonement 
for the violation of the law, by suffering the punish- 
ment due for its infraction ? Suffering the penalty 
annexed can not atone for the guilt, or justify the 
wrong committed. Man, according to the peremp- 
tory pledge of death, in case of disobedience must of 
necessity suffer it ; and if no promise of redemption 
follow the infliction of the penalty, this death must 
necessarily prove eternal. But glory be to God in 
the highest, for the love and wisdom manifested in 
the conception of the plan of redemption. God, see- 
ing his plan partially frustrated by the want of integri- 
ty in his creature man, through deception practiced 
by his grand arch-foe the devil, had pity on the ruin- 
ed, as his dereliction was the result of malicious fraud. 
Through the infinitude of his mercy, he offers his 
Son a sacrifice, that he, being just, might continue to 
be just, and at the same time justify the ungod- 
ly; through repentance and faith in the Mediator. 



MOSES. 27 

Hence man dead in his sin, justified in the atonement, 
is revivified, or has a resurrection from his death, 
through the resurrection of the Restorer. Well 
might the apostle exclaim, " Great is the mystery of 
godliness." 

Methinks I may hear the advocate for natural im- 
mortality say, this argument proves immortality and 
universalism too. Amen, I say amen, to the true 
understanding of the Scriptures. It does not prove 
that any will be immortal until the resurrection. It 
certainly proves that each and every member of the 
human family was redeemed from the guilt and re- 
sponsibility of original sin, and it proves that all in- 
fants, and all others who die before they come to the 
stage of accountability, not having forfeited the pur- 
chased life by sin, and also all others who accept of 
the provision for salvation, and die in the faith of the 
Gospel, will be immortal in the resurrection. But 
though it does prove that all mankind were redeemed 
from the guilt of Adam's sin, yet it does not prove, 
neither can it be proven from the Bible, that all will 
be finally saved, or that any of the human family are 
immortal before the resurrection. 

Adam could not have been immortal at the time of 
his creation, not from the fact that he was only con- 
stituted a living being, but from the circumstance of 
his being. The law of his being was, be obedient 
and live, or be disobedient and die. On this contin- 
gency depended his living or dying. To consider an 
individual thus circumstanced as immortal is simply 
an absurdity. How any thoughtful mind can come 
to any other conclusion seems not only mysterious, 



28 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

bat impossible. The only possibility for any diffe- 
rent views on this subject with rational and candid 
minds, so far as it is contained in this narration by 
Moses, must come from a different use or conception 
of terms. I know of no terms that could be justly 
considered ambiguous or used by different persons 
in different senses. In order to even broach the 
idea of the immortality of the sinner, the clear, un- 
equivocal terms life and death must be lacerated 
and sacrificed. Why there should be any doubt as 
to the meaning Moses attached to them, I can not 
discover. These and every other term used should 
have their plain and ordinary signification, unless 
there are urgent and positive reasons for a contrary 
use. This does not appear in the present instance. 
These are freely used in this account of the origin 
of the world and the beings upon it. As a proof 
that the same meaning should be attached to these 
terms each time they are used, I will make a quota- 
tion of them as they occur. Gen. I : 20, " And God 
said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the mov- 
ing creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly 
above the earth." Gen. 1 : 24, " And God said, Let 
the earth bring forth the living creature after his 
kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the 
earth." Gen. 1 : 29, 30, " And God said, Behold, I 
have given you every herb bearing seed, which is 
upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the 
which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed : to you 
it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the 
earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing 
that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life, I 



MOSES. 29 

have given every green herb for meat : and it was 
so." Gen. 2': 16, 17, "And the Lord God command- 
ed the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou 
mayest freely eat : but of the tree of the knowledge 
of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the 
day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Gen. 
3 : 2-4, " And the woman said to the serpent, We 
may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden ; but 
of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, 
God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall 
ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto 
the woman, Ye shall not surely die." These are 
the only times the terms life and death are used 
in the Bible until after man's fall. I would inquire 
with the deepest interest, Can any person use these 
terms in one place with a different signification 
from that he would give them in another ? If 
not, how can we come to different conclusions as 
to man's destiny ? The terms are used with the 
same meaning, whether they refer to man or any 
living thing on earth. The principle is the same 
in the one as in the other, though it be of a diffe- 
rent order and have a different destiny. There has 
not been a philosopher on earth that has been able to 
define the principle of life, though it is possessed by 
every animated being. Whatever life is, death is 
the opposite. The suspension or extinction of the 
principle of life is what is universally denominated 
death. No being that is liable to this loss of life, or 
death, can be considered immortal. Hence if there 
was no further reference to the destiny of man in the 
Scriptures, the question would be completely and 



30 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

satisfactorily settled that man was not by nature im- 
mortal. This truth, standing prominently and clearly 
defined in this Bible account of man's origin, condi- 
tion, and destiny, is proof positive that the opposite 
theory, or the immortality of the sinner, can not be 
found elsewhere in the divine word. It is not a 
supposable case that infinite wisdom and truth will 
contradict themselves and give diametrically oppo- 
site theories as true in the same revelation. "A 
house divided against itself can not stand." 

Notwithstanding the confidence that the candid 
and impartial review of the Scriptures, thus far, de- 
monstrates the fallacy of the prevailing idea that man 
is immortal, yet I will not shrink from a full and 
impartial investigation of the entire Scriptures to 
show and establish the truth that the sinner is not 
immortal. No one need fear that the Bible is not a 
unit on this subject. The word of God has been too 
often scandalized with the declaration that it can be 
made to teach any and every thing. It has no con- 
tradictions only as it is misunderstood and miscon- 
strued. The Bible is a revelation from the divine 
mind, and is one harmonious and glorious whole. 
In my opinion, this fallacy, the immortality of the 
soul, has contributed more than any or all other er- 
rors combined to produce supposed contradictions, 
clashing views, unreconcilable differences, and thus 
invalidate the Scriptures, and render their precepts 
and revelations unreliable and nugatory. 

Since the Scriptures positively affirm, in I 
Timothy 6 : 16, that God " only hath immortality, 
dwelling in the light which no man can approach 



MOSES. 3 1 

unto ; whom no man hath seen, nor can see : to 
whom be honor and power everlasting," I am 
amazed that students of the Bible could be made to 
believe and aver that every human being, of whatever 
age or grade of intellect, and of whatever condition 
or character, is immortal. And wherever you go, in 
this or foreign lands, in public or in private, on the 
stage or in the pulpit, in prayer or in holy song — 
everywhere and continually you hear the expres- 
sions, immortal man, the immortal or undying soul, 
the soul that never dies ; and nowhere can one 
of them be found in the Bible but once, and that 
made by the devil to Eve, " Thou shalt not surely 
die." Oh ! how unscriptural ! Yet, from the fre- 
quency they salute our ears, the uninformed might 
conclude they were on every leaf in the sacred 
volume. If the humble, devout Christian could 
realize the odium they cast upon the divine attri- 
butes ; the inconsistency and maliciousness they 
attach to God's character ; the inveterate hatred and 
everlasting malice with which they charge the high 
and holy Sovereign of the universe, by the use of these 
terms and phrases, methinks they would tremble 
and mourn, and cry, " Oh ! that my head were waters, 
that I might weep day and night for the injustice I 
have unwittingly done my heavenly Father." Yet 
every time these expressions are used or fall from 
their lips, they tacitly charge their Maker with having 
created myriads of human beings, to commence their 
existence in the most helpless and destitute con- 
dition, to grow up in ignorance, to be educated in 
vice ; possessed with the lowest, most sordid, and 



32 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

groveling appetites and dispositions ; without any 
knowledge of the true God, and never having heard 
of a Saviour ; to live in continual fear, anxiety, pain, 
and sorrow, and die in despair, to awake in one 
eternal, excruciating agony, which eternity must fail 
to abate. What a creed ! May an injured and in- 
sulted Deity pity and forgive his church the charge. 
Is any one horrified with this view ? So am I. 
And for this I stem a world of ignorance and pre- 
judice. Methinks I may hear the exclamation, 
Horrid, horrid ! from some more sanctimonious than 
devout. But I would ask those so superficially 
horror-stricken, instead of this picture being over- 
wrought, is it not infinitely short of the reality, if God 
has created the soul of the sinner indestructible and 
immortal ? The term immortal is used but a few 
times in the entire Bible, and is invariably used with 
reference to the divine Being ; as in i Timothy 
i : 17: "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisi- 
ble, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever. 
Amen." Immortality is a term but seldom used in 
the Scriptures, and is represented as something to 
be sought, and which may be received ; as in 
Romans 2 : 6-7 : " Who will render to every man 
according to his deeds : to them who, by patient 
continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honor, 
and immortality, eternal life." If man is naturally 
immortal, as my opponents say, why is he com- 
manded to seek for it ? Would it not be the merest 
nonsense imaginable to command an intelligent 
being to seek for something he had, and of which he 
could not dispossess himself? Will men continue to 



moses. 33 

charge the all-wise God with folly ? Does it not 
appear here that every individual of the human family, 
who comes to the years of reflection and responsi- 
bility, and has forfeited the purchased life by sin, 
is instructed to seek for immortality that he may 
have an eternal life ? Is it not evident that men 
have not immortality, since they are commanded to 
seek for it ? If the advocates for an everlasting life 
for the sinner had one expression in God's word like 
this to favor their theory, they would hang to it as 
with a tenacity for life. They would write volumes 
upon it. But if the reader will have patience and 
read, he will find a multitude more, commanding and 
irrefutable, to prove that man is only a probationer 
for immortality. 

I Corinthians 15 : 53, 54: "For this corruptible 
must put on incorruption, and this mortal must 
put on immortality. So, when this corruptible shall 
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have 
put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass 
the saying, ' Death is swallowed up in victory.' " Is 
it not here positively stated that man does not put 
on immortality, that he does not become immortal 
until after the resurrection ? And is it not further 
stated that none but the righteous put on incorrup- 
tion and immortality ? Why do they put on incor- 
ruption ? Evidently because, through the blood of 
the Lamb, they are freed from the corrupting influ- 
ence, which is sin. Is it not clear that the sinner, as 
a sinner, can not put on incorruption, consequently 
can not be immortal, since sin makes men corrupt- 
ible ? Thus immortality can be had by man only 



34 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

when freed from sin, and freedom from sin can only 
be had through the atonement by our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ. 

It can not be said that the apostle was addressing 
any but Christians, as may be seen from the first 
verse of the first chapter of this epistle : " Paul 
called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, through the 
will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, unto the 
church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that 
are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints." 
Then all will not be made immortal at the resurrec- 
tion, but those only who have been absolved from 
sin by faith in the atonement. If the wicked un- 
regenerated are to be immortal, it must be revealed 
to us hereafter. This will appear in a more inten- 
sified light when we read Romans I : 23 : " And 
changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an 
image like unto corruptible man." God is thus 
represented as not subject to corruption, decay, or 
death, therefore immortal ; but man, being subject to 
corruption, to decay, is not immortal, but corrupt- 
ible, dying. How clear, how forcible and signifi- 
cant all this appears in the light of that truth re- 
vealed in Genesis, that man, being corrupted by sin, 
had of necessity to die ; and the guilt of Adam's sin 
being canceled in the death of the Son of God, a new 
life is purchased ; and if man, when he suffers the 
penalty of original sin, dies with this purchased life 
not forfeited, he will be resurrected, and not be ex- 
posed to the second death ; consequently will enjoy a 
perpetual or eternal life. And those who do forfeit 
the resurrected life by sin, and not avail themselves 



moses. 35 

of the atonement, will die the second death, and 
have no resurrection therefrom. 

I am aware the advocates for immortality for the 
sinner seek this subterfuge, and aver that the body 
will be immortal at the resurrection ; but the soul, be- 
ing indestructible, can not die, and therefore is immor- 
tal. But where, I ask, in all God's word have we the 
assurance of the immortality of the soul above that 
we have of the body ? Does not He who created soul 
and body say that man shall die ? Does not this in- 
clude the body ? Nay, does he not say, " The soul that 
sinneth, it shall die"? Again, does not God say the 
body shall return to dust as it was, and the spirit to 
God who gave it ? Will any man tell me where the 
spirit of man existed antecedent to its being breathed 
into his inanimate nature ? If it then had not an in- 
dividual conscious existence, who can prove that it has 
one after it returns to God ? Let us not be wise be- 
yond what is written. Does not the Author of our 
being expresslydeclare, " The soul that sinneth, it shall 
surely die"? Will any one aver the preexistence of 
the soul, to be consistent and believe it immortal ? 
If the soul had not an individual, conscious preex- 
istence to its being given by God, can not it pass into 
the same state when it returns ? Can God give and 
not be able to take back ? How does any one arrive 
at such positiveness as to man's indestructibility ? 
Does not Christ say God is able to destroy both soul 
and body in hell ? From the bold and audacious 
manner in which this most fallacious dogma is flaunted 
forth, it would seem that it, in the clearest and most 
indubitable manner, was revealed in the holy Scrip- 



36 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

tures. Where, I ask, is it to be found ? Tell me, ye 
who are wise beyond measure, ye who, like the dog 
in the manger, will not believe yourselves, nor suffer 
others to believe ; ye who can hold a faithful, sincere 
student of God's word as a heretic because he will 
not, in defiance of the clearest truth of revelation, 
adopt the most infamous, calumnious, and God-dis- 
honoring fallacy ever invented by the adversary ot 
God and man — tell me where, oh ! where, on what 
page, can be found a statement clear -or probable ot 
the immortality of the unholy and incorrigible ? I 
wait an answer. Hear, O ye heavens ! and give ear, 
O earth ! Jehovah speaketh : " As I live, saith the 
Lord, I have no pleasure in him that dieth, but rather 
he would turn from his wickedness and live." " Turn 
ye, turn ye, for why will you die, O house of Israel !" 

Will the advocate for the immortality of the sinner, 
for the safety of his theory, say the death here spoken 
of, from which man is most earnestly and pathetically 
exhorted to flee, means temporal death, or the death 
which man had inevitably to meet according to the 
eternal veracity of God, Saviour or no Saviour ? 
What a strait ? Suppose any or all had taken the 
warning, had fallen in with the entreaty, would they, 
in the opinion of such theorists, have avoided natural 
death, to which all must be subjected? 

If not, how can such theorists say the death refer- 
red to was natural death ? Would not the entreaty, 
under such circumstances, be entirely inappropriate 
and of no consequence, since man could not avoid it ? 
if it refers to the second death, which occurs after 
the resurrection and final judgment, how can any 



MOSES. 37 

man sustain the doctrine of the immortality of the 
finally impenitent, when such would not heed the 
exhortation, turn from their wicked ways, and live 
secure from the power of the second death ? An- 
swer this, ye advocates of the doctrine, " Ye shall not 
surely die." This is not the only difficulty to clear 
up, to have your fallacy hereafter to bear universal 
sway over the deluded minds of men. God in the 
depths of his loving being entreats men to turn to 
him, to avoid this death from which there will be no 
awakening. 

That we may have the true import of the words 
life, death, and destroy, as they were used by Moses, 
allow a quotation of a few verses in which all are used ; 
and what signification they bear in these verses you 
may rely upon should be the meaning in every place 
they are used elsewhere in the Bible. Gen. 7 : 21-24 : 
"And all flesh died that moved on the face of 
the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and 
of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, 
and every man ; all in whose nostrils was the breath 
of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every 
living substance was destroyed, w r hich was upon the 
face of the ground, both of man and cattle, and the 
creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven ; and they 
were destroyed from the earth ; and Noah only re- 
mained alive, and they that were with him in the 
ark." What difference of opinion can arise from this 
statement ? There appears no ambiguity — all is plain. 
Why ? Because we attach to each term or word its 
appropriate meaning. Suppose a metaphysician be- 
gins to subtilize upon the words life, death, and de- 



38 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

stroy ; saying that life here means an immaterial 
something, and can not be destroyed or extinguished, 
and that the word die does not mean loss of anima- 
tion, it simply means the loss of some affection, ap- 
petite, food, or freedom, and as for the word destroy, 
it does not mean to lose being or identity, for it is a 
principle in nature that not a particle of matter was 
ever or can be destroyed ; would you not say such a 
person was strange indeed, or that much learning had 
made him mad or a fool ? He ignores all rules and 
perverts the first principle of language. There can 
be no clear conveyance of ideas to or from such an 
individual. Would not such inferences be just ? 
Could such a person by any process of reason "making 
such perversions convince you that every living ani- 
mal, of man, beast, fowls, and creeping things, on the 
earth at the time of the deluge, was not all destroy- 
ed, except Noah and they that were with him in 
the ark ? By no means, you say. The statement is 
too clear and palpable. Yet this is the very way that 
is taken to prove the immortality of the wicked, the 
immortality of the soul. It is by wresting from the 
words used their true, ordinary, legitimate meaning, 
and making them, when used in the Bible, convey a 
different meaning from what they do when used in 
any other book. 

The same term life is used in common with refer- 
ence to man, beast, fowl, and reptiles, " in which is the 
breath of life." And all died in common, by the same 
catastrophe ; being drowned in the same deluge, all 
lost the same principle, designated life. Now would 
it not be strange should the all-wise Being designate 



moses. 39 

the principle of conscious being in man, animals, birds, 
and reptiles, by the same common term, life, if this 
principle or life was not the same in all ? Let no 
one be alarmed if this is the manifest teaching of 
God's word. Though all animated creatures may- 
have a similar life or conscious existence, they need 
not of necessity have the same grade, glory, or desti- 
ny. St. Paul says, Corinthians 15: 39, "All flesh 
is not the same flesh ; but there is one kind of flesh of 
men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and 
another of birds." So may we not say, though all 
life may be the same principle, yet there is one life 
of men, another of beasts, another of birds, another 
of reptiles, and the glory of the one is not the glory of 
the other ? I know of no place in the Scriptures 
where it is said to the lower animals, Behold, I set be- 
fore you life and death ; choose you life, that you may 
live; but this I find to be the Scripture teaching 
to man. Thus man may choose life and have it per- 
petuated eternally, or he may choose death and lose 
his life forever. 

From this we may deduce another singular fact, 
which may serve to dissipate the prevailing error 
that man is immortal, by disproving one of the strong 
arguments in its favor. It is said that the soul of 
man is immortal from the circumstance that it is 
immaterial. I would ask again, Where is the proof 
that the soul of man is immaterial ? I know it has 
been attempted to be proven ; but I am confident that 
but few, if any, believe it, or consider any proof 
adduced as satisfactory. But let us look at this sub- 
ject in a more tangible light. It is not easier to 



40 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

prove the soul or life of man to be immaterial, than 
it is to prove the life or soul of animals immaterial. 
For aught that man can prove, the principle in the 
one is the same as the principle in the other. It cer- 
tainly appears so in the scripture by Moses. Both 
have souls or consciousness of being. They have a 
principle in common, which thinks, loves, hates, re- 
joices, respires, lives, and gives up the ghost. If the 
soul of man is immortal because it is immaterial, 
have we not the same proof that the soul of the brute 
is immortal ? Will not every argument in favor of 
the immateriality of man apply with equal force for 
the immateriality of the soul of inferior animals ? 

It would not answer to say the soul of man is 
immortal because it is immaterial. If it proved any 
thing it would prove too much, for it would prove 
the inferior animals also immortal. Laying aside all 
ideas of a revelation from God, I can not understand 
how it would be much more difficult to establish the 
immortality of the inferior animals than it would be 
to establish the immortality of man. Each havo 
their being under very similar, if not under the same 
circumstances. Both have a conscious being, both 
live by respiration, both have the circulation of the 
blood, which the Mosaic account says is the life ol 
both. Indeed, both live under the same physical 
law of being, and both expire under the same physi- 
cal law. Job says, " Who knoweth the spirit of man, 
that goeth upward ; and who knoweth the spirit of 
the beast, that goeth downward ?" The immateri- 
ality of the life of the inferior animals is as evident 
as the immateriality of the life of man. Hence if 



MOSES. 41 

men reason that an immaterial principle is inde- 
structible, and because indestructible is therefore 
immortal, we have the logical inference that the 
inferior animals are immortal. If this is the basis 
upon which men chiefly rely for the assurance of 
their own immortality, they must be gravely in 
doubt ; their assurance can not be very satisfactory. 
Frail indeed must be the tenure of immortality if 
it is not stronger and more certain than that we 
concede to the brute. To such a strait are those 
driven who leave the word of life, to accept of the 
teachings of the adversary or the sophistries of 
men. Is it not passing strange that men will ig- 
nore the clear teachings of revelation, and adopt a 
system of logic which as clearly proves the im- 
mortality of the brute as that of man ? When God 
plainly declares " that life and immortality are 
brought to light in the Gospel," why will men, 
from principles they little understand and can not 
define, and can not prove true or false, deduce for 
themselves a destiny which the word of God ig- 
nores and positively denies ? The one teaches an 
immortality to be accepted and sought in Him who 
says , " I am the way, the truth, and the life ;" who 
says to the Jews, " Ye will not come to me that 
ye might have life ;" the other, that man has a 
natural principle of immortality of which he can not 
dispossess himself through any means. And this 
is done with a full consciousness that God has de- 
clared, " The soul that sinneth, it shall die ;" " The 
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is 
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." I ask 



42 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

my brethren, to whom shall we go for information on 
this subject ; to God our Maker or to the devil, our 
deceiver and destroyer ? The one teaches an im- 
mortality through his Son Jesus Christ our Lord ; 
the other an intuitive natural immortality, " Thou 
shalt not surely die." I would say to each reader of 
this volume, as Joshua said to the Israelites, " Whom 
will you serve ? If the Lord be God, serve him ; if 
Baal, serve him." " If the Lord is to be believed, 
believe him ; if the adversary is to be believed, 
believe him. As for me and my house, we will be- 
lieve the Lord. God saith, " The soul that sinneth, it 
shall surely die." The devil says, " Thou shalt not 
surely die." Who will have the effrontery to say 
that die, in these two declarations, does not mean 
the same thing ? If they do mean the same, does 
not God say the sinner is not immortal, and does not 
the devil say he is immortal ? Then, my brethren, 
are you not advocating the adversary's theory or 
doctrine ? 



job. 43 



After this statement of man's origin, condition, 
and destiny, in Genesis, there is not another clear 
and definite allusion to this subject until we find it 
in Job 4 : 17 : " Shall mortal man be more just 
than God ? Shall a man be more pure than his 
Maker ?" If the Bible, nowhere on any of its pages, 
speaks of or addresses man as immortal, but invaria- 
bly as mortal, how dare men, under all circum- 
stances, in conversation, addresses, in sermons and 
in prayers, speak of him as immortal ? Do not the 
Scriptures expressly declare " that God only hath im- 
mortality ?" Will men imagine a diversity of mean- 
ings to the term immortality, as they do of the 
words life, and death, and destroy ? Immortal means 
not mortal, or not liable to death. It is a term that 
can not justly be used with reference to man in his 
present state. I wonder that scientific men will con- 
sent to use a term so inappropriately. It is a term 
appropriate to nothing earthly. It is simply absurd 
to connect it with any thing liable to die. If this 
term can be thus misused and misappropriated with 
justification, what term in the Bible may not be 
twisted and turned to meet emergencies ? Why 
should we wonder at differences, schisms, and here- 
sies ? Infinite Wisdom has used appropriate terms 
to convey his revelations, and no one is justified in 
using them but in their just and legitimate mean- 
ings. The license to mutilate and change seems 
unbridled. If the word immortality, in its legitimate 



44 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

signification, conveys the idea of no liability to die, 
why should learned and honest men consent to such 
a perversion of its use as to connect it with any thing 
terrestrial ? Its very formation allies it to another 
clime than where mutation characterizes every ob- 
ject. It should never be used in connection with 
humanity this side of the resurrection. This cant 
about immortal man, immortal soul, the undying 
soul, and the death that never dies, is exceedingly 
grating to me. There is nothing more unscriptural. 
The Bible addresses and considers man as mortal, 
and so should every man consider and address his 
fellow-man. He is obligated to do so, for it is a 
revealed truth. 

What gave rise to this expression of Eliphaz, Job 
was passing through an unparalleled scene of suffer- 
ing and trial. His friend came to console, to sym- 
pathize, and to moralize upon his afflictions so as to 
turn it to his spiritual account ; and when he heard Job 
avow his integrity, he stood horrified, and consider- 
ed it but little if any thing less than blasphemy. 
What ! could or should he think his Maker, infinitely 
just and loving, would allow such afflictions to fall 
upon a creature who had not grievously sinned and 
richly deserved his correction ? All attempt in Job 
to justify himself appeared to Eliphaz as sacrilegious, 
as charging God with cruelty and unmercifulness. 
This was a representative scene ; God for wise pur- 
poses allowed it to show to all who should take a 
part in the drama of life, what integrity or faithful- 
ness he would require in every possible circumstance 
of trial. Eliphaz was horror-stricken with the idea 



job. 45 

that Job would dare to justify himself, when God had 
permitted such afflictions as a reproof or correction. 
He considered it nothing less than casting reflections 
upon the character of his Maker. In his opinion 
God was too loving, too merciful, and too just to 
even permit so sore a trouble, if Job had not been 
guilty of great impiety. If Eliphaz was so indignant 
at Job's imputation on the character of God, by jus- 
tifying his conduct when God was so afflicting or 
allowing such affliction upon him, what righteous 
indignation should every intelligent Christian have 
on an imputation that God would exert his almighty 
power to keep in being the rebellious and incorrigible, 
to torment them in a lake of fire eternally ? What 
views of justice, love, and compassion can such per- 
sons have ? What holy horror should every true 
Christian of this nineteenth century of the Christian 
era indulge toward a doctrine which charges the 
Sovereign Ruler of the universe with ushering: into 
being untold millions of intelligent creatures without 
their consent, under circumstances the most unfavo- 
rable for any just conception of the true God, or hav- 
ing any intelligence of a Saviour; with perverted, 
low, groveling appetites and inclinations ; surrounded 
with the most impure examples, and taught in the 
most extensive school of vice ; to live to grope their 
way through this mode of existence in want, destitu- 
tion, afflictions, and pain, in disappointments, treach- 
eries, in doubt, fear, forebodings, and die in intensest 
anxiety and despair, to awake in a misery, torment, 
and anguish inconceivable and unending in a lake of 
fire. I ask, with what holy horror should every de- 



46 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

vout Christian view a doctrine which casts such 
odium upon the divine character, when God so re- 
peatedly announces the benignant revelation, " The 
goodness and mercy of God endureth forever" ? My 
very soul sickens with the thought that the children 
of God will entertain such views of their loving, 
heavenly Father. My brethren, I am persuaded that 
you do it unwittingly, having been early taught and 
indoctrinated in the fallacy ; and it has grown with 
your growth, and become second nature with you ; 
but I beseech you, by the love of God, by all the 
reverence and filial emotions you indulge toward the 
High and Holy One, reconsider this doctrine and 
see whether it is really biblical or diabolical. Re- 
member, you are not at liberty to choose your belief 
in this matter. You are bound by the most solemn 
considerations to aquiesce in the teachings of the 
divine word. What it inculcates, fear not to adopt. 
In so doing, you will honor his wisdom, and he will 
take care of his own reputation. Do you not recol- 
lect that the Jews, so bigoted in their early-taught 
views, were held responsible for their adherence to 
them, which caused the rejection of the then living 
Messiah ? Do you imagine yourselves more honest 
in your zeal than they? If they were ruined for time 
and eternity by their early education, is it not pos- 
sible for you to be thus ruined ? Think you the 
simple-hearted and zealous Roman Catholic, or the 
Mohammedan devotee, less honest than yourselves ? 
Just as sure as the doctors of the Jewish law, or the 
priests of the Roman Church, and the Koran of the 
Moslem, have led their devotees astray, so sure have 



job. 47 

your early education and a learned priesthood led 
you into a specious error with regard to this impor- 
tant revelation from God. I ask you not to believe 
me ; believe the word I refer you to. You are re- 
sponsible, my brethren, for your beliefs. No early 
education, sophistry, or teachings of the doctrines of 
men for the doctrines of God, will shield you from 
responsibility. As you would exhort the honest 
Roman Catholic to follow the teachings of the Bible 
rather than the flummery of his priest, so I, with all 
the interest we have in an anticipated immortality, 
beseech you, do as the noble Bereans, read, and be- 
lieve for yourselves. If you find, on full investiga- 
tion, the word of God teaching the immortality of 
the sinner, believe it ; but if you do not find it in the 
Bible, I beseech you by all the interest you have in 
the illimitable future, though all men believe it, do 
you discard the doctrine. Rather float alone with 
Noah in the ark of your integrity than be engulfed 
with a world in a flood of errors, or, as the three 
worthy Hebrews, walk triumphantly through the 
fires of persecution in your rectitude with the form 
of the fourth by your side, than bow in obsequious 
servility to the prevailing idolatry of the age. Be 
morally fearless and independent. Believe the truth 
and sell it not. 

I would ask the deluded divines, who live in the 
very vestibule of millennial glory, Shall the less 
favored patriarchal age rise up from its sepulchred 
past and paint the blush of shame upon your cheeks 
in the contemplation of the justice, love, and compas- 
sion of the Father and his anointed Son ? Is not 



48 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

the Lord's parable of the talents reversed ? Does it 
not now appear that he who had received the one 
talent for the glory of God had improved it to the 
divine acceptance, while the more favored, who had 
received ten talents, had buried them to his own con- 
fusion and the dishonor of the giver ? Shame on the 
unjustified thoughtlessness and the criminal prejudice 
of this age ! I repeat Eliphaz's interrogation, " Shall 
mortal man be more just than God ? shall a man 
be more pure than his Maker ?" If it is true, as you 
say, that God has constituted the sinner immortal, 
to hold him in unending tortures as you represent, is 
there of the unworthy sons of men a tyrant so base, 
so cruel, so unjust ? The latter, for some flagrant 
crime, administers to his guilty subject the most ter- 
rible retribution in his power, which soon ends in un- 
consciousness ; but the former, for, in the great majo- 
rity of cases in heathendom, I say for the sin of igno- 
rance — yes, nearly, for the sin of necessity, arising 
from the circumstances surrounding — will hold such 
unfortunates in agonies inconceivable and eternal. 
You sons of men, you shame the devil ! In his dia- 
bolical hate, he falls infinitely short of this. His 
hellish rebellion never culminated to such a height. 
Were all the liquid lava of the bottomless abyss used 
up as ink to describe the blasphemies of the lost, it 
would fail to transcribe a calumny so unjust and odi- 
ous to God. I am overwhelmed with amazement. 
May God, in the infinitude of his forbearance and 
compassion, pity and forgive his deluded children ! 

At this point, with all the feelings of love, I would 
address a word to my Arminian brethren. You men 



job. 49 

of sympathy, who could be indignant and almost 
gnash your teeth at what you term the cruel, unjust, 
and God-dishonoring decrees of Calvin, will you 
court the same anathemas ? Examine. Are your 
views less objectionable than his ? If not, why will 
you receive his decrees with such holy horror, and at 
the same time be so complaisant with your own ? 
Does it not bear the same Satanic image ? Think 
you the all-seeing eye of God will make any discrimi- 
nation ? Will you proclaim Calvin's decrees hereti- 
cal, and your theory orthodox ? Is not the one des- 
tiny from decrees with no contingencies, and the 
other from a necessitated immortality in sin ? I ask 
in all sober honesty, Is there any difference ? I 
would, my brethren, have you " pluck the beam out 
of your own eye, and then may you see clearly to 
pull the mote out of your brother's eye." The cry 
of every lover of God should be, Awake to right- 
eousness and sin not ! Mortal man is not more just 
than his Maker ; nor does the infinite justice of God 
comport with immortal misery, else man would be 
more just. Terrible sequence ! Will men argue its 
legitimacy ? 

Job 8 : 1 1— 13 : "Can the rush grow up without 
mire ? Can the flag grow without water ? While it 
is yet in its greenness, and not cut down, it wither- 
eth before any other herb. So are the paths of all 
that forget God ; and the hypocrite's hope shall 
perish : whose hope shall be cut off." What a strik- 
ing proof is this that those who forget God shall 
pass away forever ; shall perish. As the rush and 
flag without their natural aliment wither, die, and 



50 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

come to naught, so do all those who forget God. It 
would seem that if this referred to the dissolution of 
man at the end of his temporal life, it could have no 
particular significance, as that, is the common lot of 
all men. It seems to refer itself to the final scenes 
of the judgment. The same idea is conveyed in Job 
ii : 20, " But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and 
they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the 
giving up the ghost." Need any man a clearer state- 
ment that the ungodly are not immortal ? Their 
eyes shall fail, and their hope shall be as the giving 
up of the ghost. The expression would indicate a 
complete total loss ; of which there is expressed not 
the slightest intimation of a recovery. 

Job 14 : 7, 10 : " There is hope of a tree, if it be cut 
down, that it will sprout again. But man dieth, and 
wasteth away ; yea, man giveth up the ghost, and 
where is he ?" How expressive ! Frail indeed is 
the hope for a tree when it is cut down ; it may 
spring again from its roots. But there is no hope 
for a man to be conscious " till the heavens be no 
more." " If a man die, shall he live again ? all the 
days of my appointed time will I wait till my change 
come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee ; for 
thou wilt have a desire to the work of thy hands." 
This manifests his confidence in a future state of fe- 
licity ; but proves nothing as to the destiny of the 
sinner. I am anxious to quote every allusion to the 
destiny of man. I will transcribe the other remarks 
of the friends of Job without comment. 

Job 18 : 5-21 : " Yea, the light of the wicked shall 
be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine. 



JOB. 51 . 

The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle 
shall be put out with him. The steps of his strength 
shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast 
him down. For he is cast into a net by his own feet, 
and he walketh upon a snare. The gin shall take 
him by the heels, and the robber shall prevail against 
him. The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a 
trap for him in the way. Terrors shall make him 
afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet. 
His strength shall be hunger-bitten, and destruction 
shall be ready at his side. It shall devour the 
strength of his skin : even the first-born of death 
shall devour his strength. His confidence shall be 
rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him 
to the king of terrors. It shall dwell in his taberna- 
cle, because it is none of his : brimstone shall be 
scattered upon his habitation. His roots shall be 
dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut 
off. His remembrance shall perish from the earth, 
and he shall have no name in the street. He shall 
be driven from light into darkness, and chased out 
of the world." 

Job 20 : 5-7: "The triumphing of the wicked is 
short, and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a mo- 
ment. Though his excellency mount up to the 
heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds ; yet he 
shall perish forever like his own dung : they which 
have seen him shall say, Where is he ? He shall 
fly away as a dream, and shall not be found ; yea, he 
shall be chased away as a vision of the night." 

Job 21 : 18, 20: "They are as stubble before the 
wind, and as chaff that the wind carrieth away. 



52 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink 
of the wrath of the Almighty." I think it would be 
doing great injustice to this scripture to refer it sim- 
ply to the scenes of this temporal life. There is no 
special significance to it with such a construction, 
for the righteous as well as the wicked come to this 
ordeal. It evidently refers to the final scenes in 
the judgment. What expression could more cer- 
tainly convey the utter ruin or extinction of the im- 
pure, " They are as stubble before the wind, and as 
chaff that the wind carrieth away"? And as if to 
make it still more emphatic, he says his eyes shall 
see his destruction — it will certainly come, he will see 
it ; that is, in the sense he shall experience it, " and 
he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty." This 
wrath of the Almighty will not be poured upon the 
wicked till after the judgment. This terrific ex- 
pression conveys nothing short of the idea of com- 
plete and utter destruction. It does not intimate 
that they should drink it eternally. " God is a con- 
suming fire ;" the wrath of such a Being would 
speedily consummate the destruction of the sinner. 

Verse 30 : " The wicked are reserved to the 
day of destruction ; they shall be brought forth to 
the day of wrath." The Scriptures in another place 
say, " The heavens and the earth that are now, are 
reserved unto the fires of the last day and the perdition 
of ungodly men." How perfectly they agree ! There 
will be a particular, special day ; that is, unquestion- 
ably, the day of judgment, the day unto which this 
world and the ungodly are reserved for destruction. 
Can any one doubt these announcements given by 



job. S3 

the inspiration of God ? The whole teaching of the 
word of God is to this effect, that the ungodly will 
be destroyed, will perish in the fires of the last day. 
" They shall be brought forth to the day of wrath." 

Job 27 : 19 : "The rich man shall lie down, and 
shall not be gathered ; he openeth his eyes, and he 
is not." This is a very remarkable passage. " The 
rich man shall lie down," evidently in death, " and 
shall not be gathered," evidently into the kingdom, 
in the resurrection. But " he shall open his eyes," 
to see his condemnation, " and he is not," that is, 
has become extinct. Could any expression be more 
positive and clear ? Please observe the phraseology. 
He shall lie down in death and shall not be gathered ; 
but he shall open his eyes, evidently not before the 
resurrection. He shall open his eyes, and then he is 
not ; he falls into nonentity. Just as the whole Bible 
teaches that he shall perish, shall be consumed. 

Job 31:2: " For what portion of God is there 
from above ? and what inheritance of the Almighty 
from on high ? Is not destruction to the wicked ? 
and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity ?" 
If God hath ordained destruction to the wicked, shall 
mortal man rebel against it ? This is a remarkable 
passage for clearness and positiveness to show the 
complete loss of being to the unholy. What por- 
tion of God is there from above for the wicked ? 
Clearly none. Or what inheritance for the wicked 
from on high ? Evidently none. Why ? Job says, 
" Is not destruction to the wicked ?" Is not this their 
portion ? " A strange- punishment to the workers of 
iniquity." What is strange? The destruction. 



54 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

The very thing at which men cavil, and say extinc- 
tion would be no punishment. Job says, though it 
may appear strange to some, yet it is destruction. 
It seems exceedingly strange that the idea of the 
destruction of the wicked should not be readily em- 
braced when it is manifested in such a variety of ways. 
There is no truth more evident than that the wicked 
are not immortal. If God has ordained destruction 
to the wicked, shall mortal man rebel against it ? If 
justice demanded their extinction, shall the pious, 
those imbued with love, that are Christ-like, clamor for 
eternal conscious misery ? Oh ! how ill do such mani- 
fest the spirit of their Saviour ! How little are they 
in sympathy with the attributes of the Deity, " whose 
goodness and mercy endureth forever." When God 
says, " Destruction is for the wicked," will men insist 
on eternal hatred and implacability on the part of 
God ? I charge men to beware how they pervert 
God's word, when such perversion drags in its train 
such horrid blasphemy. Does not this quotation ex- 
pressly declare there is no inheritance for the wicked ? 
not even in eternal conscious misery ? Job says, 
"Is not destruction to the wicked ?" Thus we see 
the book of Job, if it makes any allusion to the des- 
tiny of the sinner, it shows positively his destruction. 



PSALMS. 55 



Psalm i : " Blessed is the man that walketh not 
in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the 
way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 
But his delight is in the law of the Lord ; and in his 
law does he meditate day and night. And he shall 
be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that 
bringeth forth his fruit in his season ; his leaf also 
shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall pros- 
per. The ungodly are not so ; but are like the chaff 
which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly 
shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the 
congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth 
the way of the righteous ; but the way of the ungodly 
shall perish." This, in the main, does not refer to this 
probationary state ; for the Scriptures represent the 
wicked in this world as " flourishing and spreading 
their branches like a green bay-tree." It is here men 
form characters. In the judgment, the righteous will 
be blessed ; but it will not be so with the wicked. 
They shall not stand in the judgment ; they shall 
wither, die, perish. " The way of the ungodly shall 
perish." I think, by this time, those who have stood 
for the immortality of the wicked will begin to recon- 
sider their views on this subject, when they find 
Moses, Job, and the Psalmist all concurring in their 
writings, and teaching invariably that the finally im- 
penitent will be destroyed, will die, perish, and become 
extinct. 

Psalm 9 : " The wicked shall be turned into hell, 



56 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

and all the nations that forget God." Some may 
think this Scripture gives no definite assurance of the 
final destiny of the wicked. But when we associate 
it with Rev. 20 : 14, and find that this hell is the lake 
of fire, into which death and hell will be cast, it be- 
comes very definite and significant. " This is the 
second death." Then if we remember that no one 
would have had a revivification or resurrection from 
the first death, without the revivifying influence of 
the atonement, and that this atonement has no power 
to raise any one from this second death, and that 
there is no more sacrifice for sin, we see that nothing 
short of death of being, or extinction, is the doctrine 
of this text. 

Psalm 11:6: " Upon the wicked he shall rain 
snares, fire, and brimstone, and a horrible tempest ; 
this shall be the portion of their cup." This Scrip- 
ture would be all-sufficient to any one who was 
not willing to believe in an absurdity or an impossi- 
bility to favor a favorite theory. The idea that frail 
human nature could endure, throughout eternity, 
God's tempestuous rain of fire and brimstone, is simply 
an absurdity. That God would do such a thing, if it 
were possible, is most horribly blasphemous. The 
most incredible of all is, that this cruel and inhuman 
theory is not only believed, but is most vehemently 
and assiduously labored for by those who confess that 
love should be the mainspring of all their actions, be- 
liefs, and desires, and who profess to believe that love 
is the prevailing element of the universe, except in 
this disordered planet. That the enemies to God 
might possibly be expected to advocate such a theory 



PSALMS. 57 

might not be unreasonable ; but that the children of 
God should advocate this defaming tenet is most un- 
accountable. Methinks I can almost hear the blessed 
Saviour exclaim, If it had been an enemy, I could 
have borne it ; but it is from my professed friends — 
those for whom I shed my blood, and who fondly 
imagine they drink of my spirit. Oh ! that they would 
understand and appreciate the declaration of my Fa- 
ther, " God so loved the world that he gave his only- 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might 
not perish, but have everlasting life." The expres- 
sion is not, that God so loved the world that he gave 
his Son to die, that whosoever believeth in him should 
not live eternally in the lake of fire and brimstone ; 
but that whosoever believeth in his Son might not 
perish — be consumed, be destroyed in the lake of 
fire— but might have everlasting life or immortality. 
Is not this, without dispute, the teaching of our 
heavenly Father ? Then, if the non-immortality of 
the sinner is so clearly manifested in the word of God, 
how dare any man teach another doctrine, and say 
the enemies of God are immortal ? 

Psalm 21 : 8, 9 : "Thy hand shall find all thine 
enemies ; thy right hand shall find out those that 
hate thee. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven 
in the time of thine anger : the Lord shall swal- 
low them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour 
them." I ask every candid person, every lover of 
truth, what expression could more clearly and posi- 
tively declare the loss of conscious being to the wick- 
ed than the one here used by the Psalmist ? His right 
hand, all-powerful, shall find all those who hate God. 



58 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

God shall make them, his enemies, as a fiery oven, in 
the time of his anger, unmixed with mercy : the Lord 
shall devour them — all his adversaries — shall swallow 
them up in his wrath. Can mortal man express the 
idea of an utter loss of being for the enemies of God 
in more terrible, certain, positive language ? When 
any substance is devoured by fire, perishes in the 
flames, does it not manifest an utter loss of identity ? 
Will any learned or unlearned individual be so lost to 
honesty and consistency as to deny this ? If not, will 
you not at once admit that the wicked are not, and, 
in the judgment, can not be immortal ? Will any man 
still think he honors God by adhering to a fallacy in- 
vented by the devil to dishonor his Creator ? " If thy 
right eye offend thee, pluck it out ; for it is better for 
thee to enter into life maimed, rather than having two 
eyes to be cast into hell fire." These are the Saviour's 
words. 

Psalm 28 : 5 : " Because they regard not the works 
of the Lord, nor the operations of his hands, he 
shall destroy them, and not build them up." The 
declaration is, God will destroy his enemies, and not 
remake, rebuild, or build them up," after their de- 
struction. Can any one, with common intelligence, 
fail to understand that this is a pledge of the sinner's 
complete extinction ? 

Psalm 37 : 9, 10 : " For evil-doers shall be cut off: 
but those who wait upon the Lord shall inherit the 
earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall 
not be : yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, 
and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the 
earth." Were this the only evidence in the Bible, 



PSALMS. 59 

that the enemies of God were not immortal, it should 
be all-sufficient to place the doctrine beyond a ques- 
tion. Could those who teach the immortality of 
God's enemies produce one passage from the Bible, 
as clear for this theory, and the entire word of God 
coincided with it, I would no sooner deny the theory, 
than I would sign my own death-warrant. This pas- 
sage can not refer to the present scene. If it did, it 
would have no particular significance ; for all are 
aware that the righteous and the evil-doers are alike 
cut off by natural death. Again, if the promise of 
the meek's inheriting the earth was made to refer to 
this present probationary scene, its truthfulness would 
be gravely in doubt, for it is manifest that here the 
lovers of this world flourish and bear rule. The di- 
vine promise is, " The meek shall inherit the earth." 
Thus far in the history of the world they have not, 
and they have no prospect of doing so until the re- 
surrection, when all competition from the covetous 
and those of unbounded and unscrupulous ambition 
has passed away. Then, and not till then, when 
the earth is purified by fire from sin, and the contami- 
nation of sin, when all the works of the devil are 
burned up, and the earth is fitted up by God in more 
than its pristine beauty, as an inheritance for those 
who have come out of great tribulations, and have 
washed their robes and made them white in the blood 
of the Lamb. This is what the great apostle denomi- 
nates the restitution of all things to their original 
harmony, grandeur, and purity. As long as the evil- 
doers are not cut off, the meek need not expect to 
inherit the earth. The inheritance of the earth by 



60 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

the meek must follow the other. It is expressly de- 
clared that when the meek do inherit the earth, the 
wicked shall not be. Nor does it say they shall not 
be on the earth. It says the wicked, without limita- 
tion, all, without an exception, " the wicked shall not 
be," that is, they shall not be anywhere ; shall be ex- 
tinct. " Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place," 
the place where he might be expected to be, or would 
be, if anywhere in existence, and " it shall not be." 
How forcible the declaration ! First it says the 
wicked shall not be ; then it says his place 
shall not be. " You may diligently consider his 
place," that is, search for it, and " shall not be able 
to find it : for it shall not be ;" for it is not in exist- 
ence. The complete artfulness and entire wisdom of 
man using all the force of human language, can not 
couch the idea of the non-existence and extinction 
of all the enemies of God in the judgment-day, in a 
more evident and positive manner than it is done in 
this declaration of the psalmist. 

Then, as if the arch deceiver, with a fiendish pre- 
sumption, might still apply his attenuated sophistry 
to evade or discolor the truth, the psalmist adds in the 
twentieth verse, "But the wicked shall perish, and 
the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs : 
they shall consume : into smoke shall they consume 
away." In this case can there be the least need of 
explanation ? Are words necessary to guard this 
positive statement of the wicked's non-immortality 
from perversion ? Is any one so stolid or uninformed 
as to need proof that the fat of lambs can be con- 
sumed by fire, that they can consume and pass away 



PSALMS. 6 1 

into smoke by heat ? Is not the declaration positive, 
that " the wicked shall perish and pass away into 
smoke" ? Who is possessed of such sacrilegious im- 
pudence as to deny that this will take place in the 
judgment? Is the falsehood of the devil in Eden so 
precious, so essential to the success of Christianity 
and to restrain the vicious from sin, that this divine 
truth must be mutilated and sacrificed, and disparage 
the declaration, "Thou shalt surely die" ? Will men, 
to change the truth of God into a lie, and the false- 
hood of the devil into truth, insist that to die does 
not mean the loss of life ; that perish does not mean 
destruction ; that destruction does not mean loss of 
identity ; that consume does not mean to waste away, 
consumption ; that not to be, does not mean extinction, 
non-entity ; to be drowned in God's wrath, does not 
mean suffocation ; that to burn up does not mean to 
waste away, to disintegrate, to decompose by heat 
or fire, and " to be as though they had not been," 
does not mean non-existence ? If all this is per- 
mitted to be done by the Christian, to render the de- 
claration of God, " Thou shalt surely die," a false- 
hood, and to make truthful the declaration of the 
devil, "Thou shalt not surely die," I ask, What 
changes and perversions may not the infidel make 
to establish his infidelity ? Men of learning, men ot 
piety, men of the church, will you not restrain your 
unbridled license ? Do you not see that you dishonor 
God and exalt the adversary ; that you sacrifice 
truth and give existence to every shade of error ; that 
you murder language and nullify the precepts and 
revelations of God ; that you create a hell to dishonor 



62 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

your Maker, and not to destroy the sinner ; and that, 
instead of increasing Christianity, you manufacture 
infidelity ? I am alarmed at your doings. You will 
not believe the true teachings of God's word, nor 
will suffer others to believe. As you love the church 
of God and would delight in her prosperity, I be- 
seech you, I warn you to receive and believe the 
word of God, as he in his wisdom has caused it to 
be written. Believe his word as it is written, and 
God will take care of his honor and his church, and 
truth shall be made to triumph over falsehood. God 
says, " The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of 
the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs ; they shall 
consume ; into smoke shall they consume away." 
Verse 22 : " For such as be blessed of him shall in- 
herit the earth ; and they that be cursed of him shall 
be cut off." This can not refer to the present scene, 
but to that after the judgment. Verse 35 to 38 : "I 
have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading 
himself like a green bay-tree, Yet he passed away, 
and lo, he was not : yea, I sought him but he could 
not be found. But the trangressors shall be destroy- 
ed together. The end of the wicked shall be cut 
off." 

Psalm 49 : 7-9 : " None of them can by any 
means redeem his brother, nor give a ransom for 
him, that he should still live forever, and not see cor- 
ruption : for the redemption of their soul is precious, 
and it ceaseth forever." If the former part of this re- 
fers to this life, it shows that there was a necessity 
for man to die, to fulfill the pledge, " Thou shalt sure- 
ly die," that there was no way to evade it. Still it is 



PSALMS. 63 

very possible that it refers to the scene beyond the re- 
surrection. The latter part, it would seem, could only 
refer to the final scene after the judgment. The re- 
demption of the soul is precious, having cost the life 
of the Son of God to redeem it from Adam's sin ; 
but when the purchased, resurrected life is forfeited by 
sin, it ceases forever, for there remains no other sacri- 
fice to be made for sin. If this only refers to the 
final scene, how clear and positive ! 

Verse 12:" Nevertheless man being in honor abide! h 
not : he is like the beasts that perish." The meaning 
would seem to be that no worldly honor can save 
from physical death ; and if he has nothing more, he 
is like the beasts that perish — have no immortality. 
" But," says the psalmist, verse 15, " God will redeem 
my soul from the grave." 

Psalm 145 : 20 : " The Lord preserveth all them 
that love him ; but all the wicked will he destroy." 
In my great desire to avoid the imputation of passing 
over any allusion to man's destiny, it may be that I 
have made some quotations which some critics may 
consider not referring to the final scene. I have en- 
deavored to give a fair, true construction. 



64 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 



Proverbs I : 24-33 : " Because I have, called and ye 
refused ; I have stretched out my hand, and no man 
regarded ; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, 
and would none of my reproof : I also will laugh at 
your calamity ; I will mock when your fear cometh. 
When your fear cometh as desolation, and your de- 
struction cometh as a whirlwind ; when distress and 
anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon 
me, 'but I will not answer ; they shall seek me early, 
but they shall not find me : for that they hated know- 
ledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord : they 
would none of my counsel : they despised all my 
reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their 
own way, and be filled with their own devices. For 
the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and 
the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But who- 
so hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall 
be quiet from fear of evil." The clause, " Then shall 
they call upon me, but I will not answer ; they shall 
seek me early, but they shall not find me," settles 
the question that this quotation refers to the scenes 
of the final judgment, or it will be made to contradict 
the whole tenor of the Scriptures, which continually 
hold forth the invitation, " Call upon me, and I will 
answer ; seek me, and ye shall find me." It exactly 
accords with the repeated denunciations in the Bible, 
that their destruction shall be complete and certain 
— that it cometh as a whirlwind, fearful and devastat- 
ing. What figure could be more appropriately used 



PROVERBS. 65 

to convey their utter destruction than this ? What 
precedes an approaching tornado but fear and fore- 
bodings ? what follows but devastation and destruc- 
tion ? What approaches more suddenly, swiftly, and 
terribly ? Though it has its beneficial services, it 
moves in its whirl on a terrific wing. If the natural 
tempest moves with such terrible grandeur, what 
language can convey a just idea of the awful subli- 
mity of the tempest of the Almighty's wrath ? If 
every man trembles at the approach of the one, what 
melting of heart will there be in the visitation of the 
other ! Think you frail human nature could endure 
it to all eternity ? It would be a miracle more won- 
derful than any recorded for our credence. No one 
should be called upon to believe it without abundant 
proof ; yet millions credit it without the semblance 
of confirmation. The sinner's final destruction will 
come with a fearfulness, suddenness, and certainty. 

Proverbs 2:18, 19 : " For her house inclineth 
unto death, and her paths unto the dead. None that 
go unto her return again, neither take they hold of 
the paths of life." This death does not refer to 
natural death ; for the house of the virtuous tends 
to that. If it has any special significance, it refers to 
the second death. Her paths are identical with the 
" broad, frequented road that leads to death, and many 
there be that go in thereat." Not to the spiritually 
dead, for there she had already arrived. Her paths 
tended to the dead, who had no hope of resuscitation 
— those who would never lay hold of the paths of life ; 
for after the condemnation in the final day, there is 



66 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

no path of life to those who pass on to the second 
death. 

Verses 21, 22 : " For the upright shall dwell in the 
land, and the perfect shall remain in it. But the 
wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the trans- 
gressors shall be rooted out of it." This Scripture 
has not and probably can not have a fulfillment until 
time shall be no more ; for the word of God positive- 
ly states, " that the wicked shall wax worse and 
worse, deceiving and being deceived to the end." 
If it was to apply to this probationary state, it should 
have been realized ever since this declaration was 
written. But during these twenty-eight hundred 
years, it has not the semblance of a fulfillment. 
Consequently, it does not refer to the present scene. 
" The perfect shall remain in the earth." Many hold 
that Christian perfection can not be had on earth. 
If this sentiment were true, (which I discredit,) 
there would be an impossibility that this passage 
refers to this present scene ; for there would be 
none to remain. It means what it declares — that 
the perfect will remain in the renovated, new earth, 
in which dwelleth righteousness ; but the wicked 
will be rooted out of it — which would, in a very good 
degree, constitute its renovation. When the righteous 
remain in the purified earth, and the wicked are cut 
off from and rooted out of the same, it devolves upon 
the advocates for their immortality to show where 
they will exist. Can you show that they will have a 
locality somewhere else ? If you fail to show another 
location, let me quote what the Apostle Paul teaches. 
He says, " The heavens and earth that are now, are 



PROVERBS. 6j 

reserved for the fires of the last day and the per- 
dition of ungodly men.". St. John says, after the 
wicked were raised, "they went up on the breadth 
of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints 
.about, and the beloved city ; and fire came down cut 
of heaven, and devoured them." Christ says in the 
end of the world his angels shall gather the tares — 
the children of the wicked one — in bundles to burn 
them. The Saviour and the Psalmist say there 
shall no place be found for them. Thus should end 
all controversy on this subject. 

Proverbs 8 : 35, 36 : " For whoso findeth me find- 
eth life, and shall find favor of the Lord. But he 
that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul : and 
they that hate me love death." The declaration is 
not whoso findeth me findeth happiness, but findeth 
life, conscious existence, perpetual and eternal. It 
is perfectly absurd to say that God will give eternal 
life not attended with happiness. Eternal life is ex- 
pressly declared to be the gift of God. Will any 
thoughtful man say God will give eternal misery, 
when he expressly declares that the wages of sin is 
death — the opposite of life ? If these Scriptures 
teach the immortality of the enemies of God, I must 
be stupid indeed ; for I confess to each reader, be- 
fore my heavenly Father, that I honestly believe 
there is not a passage in God's word that teaches 
there is an everlasting life for the finally impenitent. 
Nor does it mean that whoso findeth me findeth 
temporal life ; for this he had before. It means, 
whoso findeth wisdom findeth a life that will be per- 



68 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

petual or eternal, upon which the second death shall 
have no power. 

Proverbs 9 : 18 : "But he knoweth not that the 
dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths 
of hell." That is, dead while they live. How ? 
They have forfeited by their licentiousness the pur- 
chased life ; and if not reclaimed, the resurrected 
life will sink into the second death. 

Proverbs 10 : 25 : " As the whirlwind passeth, so 
is the wicked no more : but the righteous is an ever- 
lasting foundation." Though the whirlwind is terri- 
ble in its action, when it is spent, there is nothing 
left of it. It subsides into its original element and 
composure. The atmosphere still remains, it is true ; 
but the agitation, the whirl or whirlwind, is gone for- 
ever. As the agitation of the wind passes, so the 
wicked are no more. Is there not a singular signifi- 
cance in this expression ? Is it not a powerful, em- 
phatic representation of non-immortality, non-exis- 
tence ? How could the thought be more beautifully 
set forth ? " As the whirlwind passeth, so the wick- 
ed are no more." Verse 30 : " The righteous shall 
never be removed : but the wicked shall not inhabit 
the earth." It certainly does not mean they shall 
not be removed by natural death ; if it did, it would 
not be true. There is no avoiding this truth ; they 
shall not be removed from the new earth, and the 
wicked shall not inherit it. Why ? Because they 
are not ; having been " consumed by fire from God 
out of heaven." How forcible and significant is 
truth when understood ! "As the whirlwind passeth, 
so the wicked are no more." 



PROVERBS. 69 

Proverbs 1 1 : 3-8 : " The integrity of the upright 
shall guide them : but the perverseness of transgres- 
sors shall destroy them. Riches profit nothing in 
the day of wrath : but righteousness delivereth from 
death. The righteousness of the perfect shall direct 
his way : but the wicked shall fall into his own wick- 
edness. When a wicked man dieth, his expectation 
shall perish, and the hope of the unjust man perish- 
eth." The only death that the righteousness of men 
can deliver them from is the second death. The 
first or natural death must be submitted to, whether 
righteous or wicked. Then the wickedness of the 
wicked does not make him liable to natural death, for 
this he incurred in the sin of Adam. The wicked 
shall fall into his wickedness or the second death. 
The perverseness of the transgressors shall destroy 
them, not in the natural, but in the second death. 

Proverbs 11 : 19: "As righteousness tendeth to 
life, so he that pursueth evil, pursueth it to his own 
death." The pursuit of evil, no more than the pur- 
suit of righteousness, tendeth to natural death. Both 
alike make good the pledge of death for Adam's sin, 
" Thou shalt surely die." Then the true construction 
of this passage is, that the pursuit of evil tendeth to 
the second death, as righteousness tendeth to life 
everlasting. 

30, 31: " The fruit of the righteous is a tree of 
life ; and he that winneth souls is wise. Behold, the 
righteous shall be recompensed in the earth : much 
more the wicked and the sinner." 

If the righteous receive their recompense in the 
earth, it must be after the world is purified from all 



70 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

the defilement of sin. If the sinner is much more 
to receive his recompense in the earth, it certainly is 
not in this life, nor is it after the world is purified : 
then it must be at the time of its purification, which 
will involve the destruction of the sinner as well as 
his sins. Or else man is purged from his sins by the 
fires of the last day, and not by the blood of the 
Lamb. But if he can not be purged from his sins by 
these fires, nor in the judgment by the blood of the 
Lamb, he must be burned up. This, then, accords 
with all the teachings of the Bible, which says the 
wicked are to be consumed at that time. 

Now, if this fire at the last day is expressly in- 
tended to burn up the works of the devil as well as 
the devil himself, and to be a real purifier of the 
earth, I ask, If the sinner is not burned up or de- 
stroyed, is he not purified ? He evidently is plunged 
into this fire for some purpose, either to be purified 
from his sins or destroyed. If he is purged from his 
sins, will he not inherit the new earth ? If destroy- 
ed, can he be immortal ? Which of these will you 
accept ? Recollect that both the righteous and the 
sinner are to have their recompense on the earth, 
either in it purified or in it being purified. Again, 
if in the fire of the last day the sinner is to receive 
his recompense or due, how can any one say the sin- 
ner will writhe eternally in this iire, when it will last 
only long enough to purify the earth, and will subside 
and give way to the new heaven and the new earth ? 
God's revelation is true, and good logic is safe. 

Proverbs 12:7: " The wicked are overthrown and 
are not : but the house of the righteous shall stand." 
However much men may labor to refer this declara- 



PROVERBS. 71 

tion to the present scene, they can not succeed only 
as they succeed in discrediting the Bible ; for all 
know that the wicked, as a class, are not overthrown 
in this world, nor have they ceased to be. To apply 
this statement to this life is simply to discredit the 
Bible, make it a jargon or book of contradictions. 
Justly interpreted, it harmonizes with the entire 
Scriptures. The wicked are not overthrown nor will 
they cease to be until the resurrection, " and fire 
comes down out of heaven from God and devours 
them." Then, and not till then, can it be truthfully 
said, " The wicked are not." 

Proverbs 13 : 13 : " Whoso despiseth the word shall 
be destroyed ; but he that feareth the command- 
ment shall be rewarded." What truth could be in 
this declaration, if it meant that whoso has not a 
veneration for the Scriptures shall meet with a vio- 
lent death, or that their worldly circumstances should 
be destroyed ? Yet men will argue this with en- 
ergy, though it militates directly against the truth 
of the statement and serves to undermine the validi- 
ty of the Scriptures. Its easy and legitimate con- 
struction is, those who despise the word of God shall 
finally meet with irrevocable destruction, and if so, 
they are not immortal. 

Verse 20 : " He" that walketh with wise men shall 
be wise ; but a companion of fools shall be destroy- 
ed." These proverbs are either true or false. If 
true, and to be construed as any other language, 
what can this quotation mean other than that those 
who are so foolish as to forego all the benefits of the 
atonement in the end shall be destroyed ? There is 
no good reason why the language of the Bible should 



72 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

not be used and construed as the language of any 
other book. It is doubtful whether patience toward 
those who do otherwise is a virtue. 

Proverbs 15:10: "Correction is grievous to him 
that forsaketh the way ; and he that hateth reproof 
shall die." 

Proverbs 19:9: "A false witness shall not be un- 
punished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish." 
This can only be true as it is associated with the 
sentiment of Rev. 21 : 8 : " And all liars shall have 
their part in the lake that burnetii with fire and 
brimstone : which is the second death." 

Proverbs 24 : 20 : " For there shall be no reward 
to the evil man ; the candle of the wicked shall be 
put out." Is it not remarkable that such a variety of 
expressions should be used by the sacred writers, 
and all indicating the entire destruction of the un- 
godly, if it were not a fact ? If putting out the candle 
of the wicked does not indicate their extinction, I do 
not know what terms could be used to convey it. 

Proverbs 29 : 1 : " He that being often reproved 
hardeneth his neck, shall be suddenly destroyed, and 
that without remedy." Although we may witness 
occasionally marked and signal judgments against 
flagrant sinners, yet the providence is by no means 
general. To apply this passage to any other event 
than the sudden, terrible, and final destruction of the 
finally impenitent, would subject the truthfulness of 
this scripture to very severe criticism. We are never 
permitted or justified in placing such a construction 
upon Scripture as will jeopardize its veracity or make 
it contradict the true spirit or general tenor of the 
whole. 



ISAIAH. 73 

Isaiah 3:10, 11: "Say to the righteous, that it 
shall be well with him ; for they shall eat the fruit 
of their doings. Woe unto the wicked ! it shall be ill 
with him ; for the reward of his hands shall be given 
him." This perfectly accords with the teachings of 
St. Paul, who gives us to understand what their re- 
ward shall be. He says, " The wages of sin is death ; 
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ 
our Lord." 

Isaiah 5 : 24 : " Therefore as the fire devoureth the 
stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their 
root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall 
go up as dust : because they have cast away the law 
of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the 
Holy One of Israel." Consider the nature of fire 
its devouring, disintegrating, dissipating influence ; 
understand also the combustible nature of stubble, 
and especially of chaff; realize also that fire here is 
used to faintly represent the indignation of God, and 
the stubble and chaff to represent the enemies of 
God. When this almighty indignation or fire is 
brought to bear on the represented combustible 
nature of man, what sequence must follow ? Let 
candor, reason, and the power of judging, with which 
your Creator has invested you and will hold you 
responsible for, have their freedom, and say whether, 
from the declaration of the prophet, you infer the 
complete loss of being to the wicked, or an immorta- 
lity in misery ? As a fellow-mortal, standing in the 
full cognizance of Omniscience, I ask the advocates 
of the immortality of the impure, If you, after solemn^ 
careful consideration of this passage, still adhere to 



74 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

your theory, do you not distrust and discredit the 
prophet, deny and reject his message, and throw 
contempt upon the High and Holy One who sent 
him ? Does not inspiration here say the stubble, 
chaff, or wicked, will be finally submitted to the 
flames, because they cast away the law and despised 
the word of God ? If my opponents still publish an 
immortality in sin, do they not despise the word of 
the prophet of God and cast away his law so clearly 
announced ?• Will you, for the falsehood of the spirit 
of evil, " Thou shalt not surely die," expose yourselves 
to the consuming indignation of the Almighty ? 
Think you it a trifling thing to set at naught in any 
respect the counsel of God ? Do you not remember 
the reply of the Son of God to Satan, when tempted 
to distrust Providence and turn stones into bread ? 
He replied, " Man shall not live by bread alone, but 
by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of 
God." Do you not know that Adam cursed not only 
himself, but the entire human family, by distrusting 
the word of God ? Think you, you can do it with 
impunity ? It is the fallacy of the devil. I beseech 
you by all the interest a man can have in an immor- 
tal life, believe the word of God. Be sure it means 
what it says. God is his own interpreter. If he had 
meant otherwise, he would have caused his prophet 
to write otherwise. The sinner, as a sinner, can not 
be immortal ; and every individual who says he is 
sins against his God, and each one may estimate the 
consequence. 

Isaiah 11:4: " And he shall smite the earth 
with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of 



ISAIAH. 75 

his lips shall he slay the wicked." In this scrip- 
ture there can be no doubt or ambiguity. Allow that 
it teaches that the word of God will convince the sin- 
ner of his sin, and slay the enmity of his soul if he 
comes to the cleansing fountain ; does it not teach 
that the sinner who has sinned against his pur- 
chased life, and does not avail himself of the atone- 
ment, he will slay ? Does he not declare that he will 
slay the wicked ? If he is not allowed to slay their 
wickedness, will he not fulfill his pledge and slay the 
wicked ? If God slays the wicked in the judgment, 
can they have eternal life ? Does not the word slay 
mean to kill, to take away life ? If God takes away 
life after the resurrection, who will give it again ? 
Does not Christ say, " I am the way, the truth, and the 
life" ? If frail, fallen human nature becomes impatient 
with your rejection of these multiplied evidences on 
this all-absorbing question, think you an infinitely pure 
and holy God will not be indignant ? You may laugh 
at the author's simplicity, earnestness, and solici- 
tude, and pervert the word of God he quotes and be- 
lieves ; but as sure as there is righteousness in the 
Sovereign Ruler of the universe, for these things 
he will bring you into judgment. You are at liberty 
to despise a humble, honest effort, but you are not 
at liberty to despise, disbelieve, and set at naught 
the word of God. Do you think the smiting of the 
earth with the rod of his mouth, which evidently is 
his judgment — that will cause the elements to melt 
with fervent heat and burn up the works of the devil 
— more* easily to be understood than his promise to 
slay the wicked ? Shall mortal men stand amazed 



y6 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

and in dread of the one and be complacent in their 
contemplation of the other ? May God help us to real- 
ize that the whole question of life is involved. God 
" will slay the wicked with the breath of his lips." 

Isaiah 10:16-19: " Therefore shall the Lord, the 
Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness : 
and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like 
the burning of a fire. And the light of Israel shall 
be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame, and. it 
shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in 
one day ; and shall consume the glory of his forest, 
and of his fruitful field, both soul and body ; and they 
shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth." This 
prophecy could not have had a complete fulfillment 
in Israel's return from Babylon : it evidently carries 
the mind to that one last terrible day when the 
enemies of God will be swept from the face of the 
earth and from existence. 

Isaiah 11:4: " But with righteousness shall he 
judge the poor, and reprove with equity the meek 
of the earth ; and he shall smite the earth with the 
rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips 
shall he slay the wicked." Having commented on a 
similar passage, I will pass without further remark. 
I wish to adhere to my original design to quote every 
reference to this subject. The reader will be better 
satisfied to know that all that God has revealed about 
the destiny of man is laid before him. 

Isaiah 31 : 33 : "For Tophet is ordained of old ; 
yea, for the king it is prepared ; he hath made it deep 
and large ; the pile thereof is fire and much wood ; 
the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, 



ISAIAH. 77 

doth kindle it." If this has not a direct, it certainly 
has a typical reference to the final scene. 

Isaiah 41 : 10-13 : " Fear thou not, for I am with 
thee ; be not dismayed, for I am thy God ; I will 
strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee ; yea, I will up- 
hold thee with the right hand of thy righteousness. 
Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall 
be ashamed and confounded ; they shall be as no- 
thing ; and they that strive with thee shall perish. 
Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them ; even 
them that contend with thee, they that war against 
thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of naught. 
For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, say- 
ing unto thee, Fear not ; I will help thee." This un- 
questionably is a prophecy to the church, and making 
an evident allusion to the coming Messiah. Its glo- 
rious announcement will certainly be realized. His 
enemies shall come to naught, and shall not be. 

Isaiah 50:9: " Behold, the Lord God will help me ; 
who is he that shall condemn me ? lo, they all shall 
wax old as a garment ; the moth shall eat them up." 
This may allude to Isaiah, but it more probably has 
reference to the Messiah. If so, it is in harmony with 
all the Scriptures, that his enemies shall be as by a 
moth, eaten up or consumed. 

Isaiah 65 : 11-19 : " But ye are they that forsake 
the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare 
a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink-offer- 
ing unto that number. Therefore will I number you 
to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaugh- 
ter : because when I called, ye did not answer ; when 
I spake, ye did not hear ; but did evil before mine 



?8 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not. 
Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, my ser- 
vants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry : behold, my 
servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty ; behold 
my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed : 
behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye 
shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexa- 
tion of spirit. And ye shall give your name for a 
curse unto my chosen : for the Lord God shall slay 
thee, and call his servants by another name : that he 
who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself 
in the God of truth ; and he that sweareth in the 
earth shall swear by the God of truth ; because the 
former troubles are forgotten, and because they are 
hid from mine eyes. For, behold, I create new heav- 
ens and a new earth: and the former shall not be re- 
membered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and 
rejoice forever in that which I create : for behold I 
create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. 
And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people : 
and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in 
her, nor the voice of crying." This scene has never 
been witnessed on earth, and never can be until after 
the judgment. I will quote an analogous passage 
which, I think, will satisfy every reader that the above 
quotation has reference only to the final scene. Rev. 
21 : 1-8 : "And I (John) saw a new heaven and a 
•new earth : for the first heaven and the first earth 
were passed away ; and there was no more sea. And 
I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down 
from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned 
for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of 



ISAIAH. 79 

heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with 
men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be 
his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be 
their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither 
sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more 
pain : for the former things are passed away. And he 
that sat upon the throne, said, Behold, I make all things 
new. And he said unto me, Write : for these things 
are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done ; 
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I 
will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of 
the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall in- 
herit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall 
be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the 
abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and 
sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their 
part in the lake which burnetii with fire and brim- 
stone : which is the second death." I ask the advocate 
for an immortality to the sinner, can you, after you 
read these quotations in connection, affirm the second 
death, here mentioned, means simply the death of hap- 
piness ? When God says to the resurrected wicked, 
" I will number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow 
down to the slaughter, because I called and you re- 
fused," etc. — "and the Lord God shall slay thee," that 
is, the resurrected, ungodly man ; " slay them ;" take 
away their resurrected life, which was purchased by 
Christ and forfeited by sin, I ask you again — you who 
teach the Satanic doctrine, " Thou shalt not surely 
die " — will you not cease to calumniate your Maker ? 
Will you still charge the righteous God with injus- 



80 THE DESTINY' OF MAN. 

tice, malevolence, and implacability ? When he said, 
if disobedient, " thou shalt surely die," will you still 
audaciously and impiously declare, It is false ; thou 
art immortal ? I charge you, by all that is sacred, re- 
frain from your sacrilegious avowals. I wonder not 
that the omniscient Judge should exclaim, by the pro- 
phet Isaiah, 42 : 18, 19: " Hear, ye deaf; and look, 
ye blind, that ye may see. Who is blind but my ser- 
vant, or deaf, as my messenger that I have sent ? who 
is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord's 
servant ?" Will any say that one of these quotations 
refers to the scenes of the final judgment, and the 
other does not ? Do they not both represent the 
same event ? Does not the slaughter in the one case 
mean the same as the second death in the other ? Is 
not the prophecy of the freedom from sickness, pain, 
and death the same in both ? Then, if Isaiah here 
portrayed the final scene of this world's tragedy, as 
St. John has in the Apocalypse, will any presume to 
say that the second death is not the slaughter of the 
resurrected life ? If this is admitted, who will prove 
there will be a resurrection from this death ? If this 
fails, is not the immortality of the sinner an absurdity ? 
The declaration of man's natural immortality was the 
falsehood that deceived our first parents, and brought 
death and all our woes into the world, and has since 
been a prolific source of human errors. Should this 
numble treatise, in the providence of God, serve, in 
any degree, to dry up this universal flood of error, I 
shall be immeasurably gratified. May God be glori- 
fied by the justification of his ways to his creature 
man ! 



ISAIAH. 8 1 

Isaiah 66 : 15-17 : " For, behold, the Lord will 
come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, 
to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with 
flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the 
Lord plead with all flesh : and the slain of the Lord 
shall be many. They that sanctify themselves in the 
gardens, behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's 
flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be 
consumed together, saith the Lord." If this is con- 
sidered as referring to the destruction of Jerusalem, 
I have no doubt but that it is a type of the final 
scene. I insert it to avoid the charge of intentional- 
ly omitting any allusion to this subject. There are 
some references on which some may have reasonable 
doubts whether they manifest temporal judgments or 
those of the final judgment. I hope no difference in 
this respect will be made the basis of grave debate ; 
let all close in with such as can admit of no doubt in 
our construction. I am aware that the unscrupulous 
make the loudest debate on mere non-essentials when 
the logician might be the least guarded. Yet I would 
give it as my opinion that this last quotation refers 
especially to the general judgment, when " God will 
plead with all flesh." 



82 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 



Jeremiah 10 : 10: "But the Lord is the true God 
and an eternal King ; at his wrath the earth shall 
tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide 
his indignation." This is just the light in which we 
should regard his wrath and indignation. It is noth- 
ing less than absurd to imagine that a nation, people, 
or man could endure it eternally. The word of God 
means ail it says. Well might even the prophet 
pray, as in 24th verse, " O Lord, correct me, but 
with judgment ; not in thine anger, lest thou bring 
me to nothing." If the power and wisdom of 
God could create man, his wrath can destroy him if 
rebellious. 



EZEKIEL. 83 



Ezekiel 3 : 18-21 : " When I say unto the wicked, 
Thou shalt surely die ; and thou givest him not warn- 
ing, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked 
way, to save his life, the same wicked man shall die 
in his iniquity ; but his blood will I require at thy 
hand. Yet, if thou warn the wicked, and he turn 
not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, 
he shall die in his iniquity ; but thou hast delivered 
thy soul. Again, when a righteous man turneth 
from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I 
lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die ; be- 
cause thou hast not given him warning, he shall die 
in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done 
shall not be remembered ; but his blood will I re- 
quire at thy hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the 
righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he 
doth not sin, he shall surely live.; because he is 
warned, also, thou hast delivered thy soul." If there 
was not another text in the Bible to prove the non- 
immortality of the wicked, this would be abundantly 
sufficient. There is not the slightest obscurity in 
this passage, nor should there be any misapplication. 
The life and death here spoken of can not refer to 
our natural life or death. Where has God, in his 
word, said that if a man does not sin he shall not see 
temporal death ? or where does he teach men since 
their fall, if they sin, they shall suffer natural or 
physical death ? Here is where men do not dis- 
criminate. Is not the fiat, that man shall die, in 



84 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

consequence of original sin ? Does God propose to 
save us from temporal death by the atonement of our 
Lord and Saviour ? Most manifestly not. He died 
not to save us from a natural death, but that this 
death should not be eternal ; that man, after he had 
fulfilled, by dying, the pledge that, if disobedient, he 
should surely die, might have a resuscitation or a 
resurrection from this death, and enjoy a new life. 
Men having come to the age of accountability, if 
they sin, forfeit this new life. This deplorably ap- 
pears to be the lot of all who come to the age of re- 
sponsibility ; as the prophet says, " We all like sheep 
have gone astray : we have turned every one to his 
own way." In this condition, God addresses men, 
" When I say to the wicked, Thou shalt surely die" — 
that is, the second death ; " If he turn not from his 
wicked way, he shall surely die ;" that is, after he 
has been resurrected, the resurrected life shall die, 
which is called in Scripture the second death. These 
men addressed are not called wicked because Adam 
sinned, but because they have sinned and forfeited 
the new life which had been purchased by Christ ; 
and if they do not turn to Christ by repentance and 
faith in his death and merits, this forfeiture of life 
will continue, and must of necessity sink into the 
second death at the final judgment. There being 
no antidote for this second death, it inevitably must 
be eternal. 

Again, God says, " When I say to the righteous." 
Flow came they righteous ? Evidently through re- 
pentance and faith in the atonement. " Thou shalt 
surely live." Why ? Because the forfeiture by sin 






EZEKIEL. 85 

of the new, purchased life had been canceled in the 
blood of the Lamb. " If he turn from his righteous- 
ness, and commit iniquity" — that is, sin against the 
purchased life and thus forfeit it — " he shall die." 
The resurrected life, forfeited by sin, shall die, the 
same as the natural life dies the natural death for 
Adam's sin. Can any with common comprehension 
fail to see the truth of God, as stated in the above 
reference ? The first or natural death produces a 
cessation of vitality or loss of life ; the second can be 
expected to accomplish no less. The one was for a 
time ; the other for eternity. Then away with the 
miserable fallacy that the wicked shall have an ever- 
lasting life in misery ! 

Ezekiel 18:4:" Behold, all souls are mine ; as the 
soul of the father, so also the soul of the son : the 
soul that sinneth, it shall die." I would not like to 
share the responsibility of those who would presume 
to pervert the language or obscure the truth of this 
scripture. God affirms all souls are his ; and the soul 
that sinneth, it shall die. He does not say the body, 
the spirit, the purity, or the happiness shall die, as 
men often argue ; but he expressly says the soul that 
sinneth, it shall die. Dare any say the soul shall not 
die ? Could Eve, from the silence of the sepulchre, 
speak to this generation or to the church, she would 
exclaim with terrific horror. This is the beguiling de- 
ception of the devil. I heard it in Eden. I heard it 
from a beast I had considered speechless but for the 
virtue of the forbidden fruit. I was led to believe he 
was advanced in the scale of being, and with his assur- 
ance that God did not mean what he said, or that I 



86 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

put a wrong construction on the prohibition, he said, 
and I believed it, " Thou shalt not surely die, but be 
as God." Is it not remarkable that the same identi- 
cal lie that drove man from Paradise the church of 
God now teaches, even when it must appear to every 
disinterested mind that it is now multiplying at a fear- 
ful rate every species of skepticism, from rank atheism 
to the mildest form of moral indifference ? I say, could 
the mother of mankind open her eyes upon this 
scene she would urge with unbounded interest that 
this base lie, " Thou shalt not surely die," is the same 
as the polished and prevailing doctrine, Thou, man, art 
immortal. Receive it not ; it comes from the abyss 
of falsehood. It is the soul of envenomed hate ; it 
is the shaft that lances life ; it is the envenomed dart 
that has transfixed every member of my numerous 
progeny. And O amazing wonder of wonders ! 
those most favored and highly gifted have as- 
sumed the task, the inglorious task, of heralding 
the damning theme, both dishonoring to God and 
ruinous to man. Oh ! the climax of wonders is, that 
those who profess supreme love to God, and equal 
love to their brother man, will chime in with the devil 
to deceive themselves and their kind, and most im- 
piously hurl back the charge of falsehood into the 
very face of infinite veracity. It seems incredible. 
Shame on the stolidity of man ! Shame to the ser- 
vility of the human intellect for the inception of 
such unscriptural, unphilosophic ideas ! It would 
seem that the human mind, perverted, sponge-like 
would drink in any liquid, however poisonous the de- 
coction. It seems as though it had become a mania 



EZEKIEL. 8? 

in man to change the truth of God into a lie, to mu- 
tilate the Scriptures in changing the use and meaning 
of terms, such as life, death, hell, lake of fire, perish, 
consume, destroy, quench, blot out, devour, root out, 
burn up, etc. ; all such terms, which the most limited 
intelligences can not fail to understand, are ruthlessly 
handed over to Satan's scalpel, to be dissected, cut, 
. torn, and murdered with fiendish recklessness, to dis- 
credit God and exalt the devil. 

Ezekiel 18 : 19, 20 : "When the son hath done 
that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my 
statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live. 
The soul that sinneth, it shall die." The declaration 
is, " He that hath kept all my statutes shall surely 
live ;" that is, shall not surely die. The very same 
expression Satan used to Eve, if she would only sin. 
The one is to assure the righteous of immortality ; 
the other to assure the wicked of immortality. The 
one is of God to the righteous ; the other is of Satan 
to the sinner. Which is true ? The devil's must be 
false, for God says, " The soul that sinneth, it shall 
die." Let it at this place be understood that the 
question is, whether the soul will live or die ; whether 
it is immortal or not immortal. God says the soul of 
the sinner shall die, shall not be immortal ; the devil 
says it shall not die, it is immortal. The issue is just 
here, and every individual who comes to the age of 
accountability must decide for himself or herself. I 
for one decide that God is true and the devil a liar. 
If this is a true decision, the wicked are not im- 
mortal. 

Verse 21 of the same chapter : " But if the wicked 



88 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, 
and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful 
and right, he shall surely live ; he shall not die." No 
one who has the least regard for truth will refer the 
words live and die in this passage to the life of this 
probationary state, or to the natural dissolution of 
the body. " Shall not die" means shall not lose vi- 
tality, life, conscious being ; but shall live, retain con- 
sciousness. Must it not be manifest to every candid, 
reflecting mind that to make this scripture teach the 
immortality of the sinner, the terms life and die must 
be so changed as to convey an entirely opposite mean- 
ing to that they always convey, except in this infernal 
attempt to prove God false and the devil truthful ? 
This passage applies only to those who do turn from 
their sins and do the will of God ; if they do not, 
they shall surely die. But the doctrine of the im- 
mortality of the sinner is, that they will be immortal 
whether they keep the statutes of God or not. The 
question is, then, is such a change admissible ? If it 
is, the Bible ceases to be the rule of right. If a 
mutilation for such a nefarious purpose is permitted, 
what base design can not claim the right ? Will God 
with impunity allow such fiendish surgery ? allow 
the unholy fangs of error to lacerate his eternal truth ? 
Verse 23 : " Have I any pleasure at all that the 
wicked should die ? saith the Lord God : and not that 
he should return from his ways and live ?" To die 
or to live are the respective conditions or destinies. 
No one can deny that this passage refers to the destiny 
of man ; and it is here stated to be life or death, immor- 
tality or no immortality. Does not this interrogation 



EZEKIEL. 89 

amount to a positive affirmation that God has no 
pleasure in the death of the sinner ? Will any ask, 
Why then does he allow it ? I answer, from the 
constitution he has given man he can not prevent it. 
Man is a creature possessing untrammeled volition. 
He chooses to sin. Then I ask our opponents if, to 
die, which God says he has no pleasure in, means an 
eternal experience of misery, why will God permit 
that ? Clearly not because the volition of the sinner 
prevents him. It can not be that the sinner, after he 
has been in the lake of fire, tormented a year, will 
choose to be tormented eternally. Then why will he 
permit or cause this assumed eternal conscious mis- 
ery ? Not because he is compelled to, nor because 
he is willing or is pleased with it. The reason, then, 
must be, if he allows or causes the eternal, conscious 
misery of the sinner, he does it in express opposition 
to his nature ; which would be an absurdity. Then 
let this declaration of the divine Being have its true 
and legitimate meaning — that he is not pleased with 
the death, the loss of life or of consciousness, of the 
sinner, which must be eternal ; for there will be no 
resurrection from this death ; but that he would rather 
the sinner would turn from his wicked way and live ; 
live on and live eternally — a life on which the second 
death will have no power. God needs no correction. 
His language is pure English, chaste and true to its 
import. Much better had these reconstructionists 
reconstruct the constitution of the American govern- 
ment, with the full investment of unqualified human 
bondage, than undertake the reconstruction of God's 



90 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

word, and involve him in the authorship of the eter- 
nal, conscious misery of his enemies. 

Verses 26, 27 : " When a righteous man turneth 
away from his righteousness, and committeth iniqui- 
ty, and dieth in them, for the iniquity he hath done 
shall he die. Again, when the wicked man turneth 
away from his wickedness that he hath committed, 
and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save 
his soul alive." How clear and past dispute is this 
statement ! If a man, having forfeited the new life 
purchased by the death of Jesus, by sin, shall have this 
forfeiture canceled through repentance and faith in 
the atonement, and thus be denominated righteous ; 
if he sin again and make another forfeiture of life, and 
die in this sin and forfeiture, for this renewed forfeit- 
ure he shall die again. Could this condition of life or 
destiny be manifested more clearly by any chosen 
servant of God ? It would seem that Omniscience had 
resolved to barricade the truth, on this subject, with 
more than an adamantine bulwark, that those least 
anticipating evil might be put on their guard, and not 
be folded in this insidious fold of deception. 

" Again, when the wicked man turneth away from 
his wickedness that he hath committed, and' doth that 
which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul 
alive." Is any man free from responsibility who reads 
this truth and ignores it ? Though this truth can not 
be made plainer, please allow a paraphrase : God says 
the wicked man is not wicked for original sin, but 
wicked for the sins he has committed against the life 
purchased by the Saviour ; if he turns from his wick- 
edness, and, through the grace of God in his Son, 



EZEKIEL. 91 

shall do that which is right, he shall save his soul 
alive. Mark the expression : " save his soul alive " ! 
From what ? Evidently from a death that would not 
admit of his soul being alive. Could all ideas of the 
destiny of the wicked be expunged from the minds 
of all men, and the present revelation of God be pro- 
duced in this enlightened age, in my opinion not one 
out of a million would have the shadow of a doubt on 
this subject; the universal concession would be, the 
enemies of God, in the final judgment, would be 
burned up — should become, as the prophet declares, 
" as though they had not been." 

Verse 32 : " For I have no pleasure in the death of 
him that dieth, saith the Lord God ; wherefore turn 
yourselves and live." It must be, beyond a question 
to all, that the death here mentioned means the 
second death, and the life mentioned means the re- 
surrected life. It is simply absurd to say that God is 
unwilling that men should pass through temporal or 
natural death when his veracity is pledged for it. 
Nor did he exhort men to turn from any course of life 
to avoid the fulfilment of his pledge that man should 
die ; but to turn from their sins, which were commit- 
ted against the purchased life, that the forfeiture of 
this life might be canceled, and they enjoy the resur- 
rected life inimitably. It would be disparaging to 
the character of God, to say he had a disregard for his 
faithfulness, which would be the case if he should be 
understood to say he was unwilling that man should 
undergo natural death. But it is perfectly reason- 
able that God should be willing to destroy his ene- 
mies, who would not be saved, but were resolved to 



92 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

continue their rebellion, though he would prefer them 
to turn and live. 

The same sentiment, for emphasis, is repeated in 
33 : II ; and he here confirms it with an oath : " As 
I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from 
his way, and live. Turn ye ! turn ye from your evil 
ways, and live ; for why will ye die, O house of 
Israel ?" Here it is under the most solemn oath of 
the Almighty, that the wicked are not immortal. 
When he could swear by no greater, he swears by 
himself : " As I live, saith the Lord, I have no plea- 
sure in the death" (the second death) " of him that 
dieth ;" but that the wicked turn from his wicked 
way, and live eternally. When God condescends to 
confirm his truth by a solemn oath, feeble man should 
fear to contradict it. 

33 : 13 : " When I say to the righteous that he 
shall surely live : if he trusts to his own righteous- 
ness, and commits iniquity, all his righteousness 
shall not be remembered ; but for iniquity that he 
hath committed, he shall die for it." Now, it is 
God's truth that men do not die a natural death 
in consequence of individual sins ; nor do men die 
the second death, which occurs after the resurrec- 
tion, on account of original sin. Natural death is 
the consequence of Adam's sin ; the second death is 
the consequence of men's individual sins. Each 
death would prove eternal without an antidote. 
From the first man has a resurrection, through the 
death and resurrection of Jesus ; from the second 
there is no resurrection, because there is no sacrifice 



EZEKIEL. 93 

promised for it. The one death becomes temporal, 
or for a time, through the mediation ; the other 
remains eternal in the absence of an antidote. How 
easy is it to comprehend man's probation for immor- 
tality !, If he complies with God's terms, he will be 
immortal in the resurrection ; if he does not, he will 
die in the judgment-clay, and not be immortal. There 
is no use of quibbling : this death is the loss of life — 
an eternal loss of life or conscious being. If this life 
is not conscious being, no man can prove from God's 
word that even the righteous have immortality or 
eternal life. It would be exceedingly strange, if the 
term life here did not mean the same as life else- 
where. If it means conscious existence in one place, 
it does in another. Then it is certain from God's 
word that the sinner finally will lose all conscious 
being forever, and so is not immortal. 

That the arch-fiend of perdition first preached the 
immortality of the sinner in Eden can not be truth- 
fully denied. That it was this falsehood which swept 
innocence from this fair heritage of man, and pro- 
duced a universal harvest of woe for the human race, 
and that now so obscures the way of life that millions 
of the strongest-minded men on earth to-day are in- 
duced to walk in the way to death, there can not be 
a question. God's designs are so obscured, his word 
perverted, his truth falsified, his ways rendered so 
inharmonious with himself, and so unjustified, too, 
in the sight of man, by this Satanic, God-defam- 
ing doctrine, that reflecting men become bewilder- 
ed, and are made content to wander in the mazes 
of error, and, as they say, trust for the sequel 



94 TKE DESTINY OF MAN. 

in the love and mercy of God whom they can not 
understand. O ye, who thus pervert the truth, 
and hedge up the way to life ; who will not go into 
the kingdom yourselves, nor suffer others who are 
entering to go in, I lift a warning voice that you 
cease to invite the wrath of God. Let God's word 
convey its own manifest meaning, and his blessed 
truth have its legitimate effect ! Allow the all-wise 
Being to be truthful, and the devil to be what he is — 
the father of lies. 

Verses 14, 15 : "Again, when I say to the wicked, 
Thou shalt surely die : if he turn from his sin, and do 
that which is lawful and right : if the wicked restore 
the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in 
the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he 
shall surely live : he shall not die." Think you God 
intended to say that he would avoid natural death, 
which he had positively said he would undergo if he 
sinned ? God does not contradict himself. " His 
ways are equal." He meant he should live eternally 
— that the second death should have no power over 
his life ; it should be perpetual. " He shall not die ;'' 
he shall not lose his life, his consciousness of being 
in death — the second death — the death that would be 
eternal. If this is God's word, let no man treat it 
irreverently or with contempt. It is God's word ; 
and it teaches no less the eternal loss of con- 
scious being to the sinner than it does the eternal 
life of the righteous. That it teaches both in the 
most unequivocal manner there can not be a doubt. 
The only mysterious thing in the premises is, that 
good men should be so deluded by the adversary as 
to think it teaches anv thins: else. 



MALACHI 95 



Malachi 4:1: " For, behold, the day cometh that 
shall burn as an oven : and all the proud, yea, all 
that do wickedly, shall be stubble ; and the day that 
cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, 
that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." 
The only means the advocates for an immortality of 
the wicked have to evade this Scripture is, to refer it 
to the destruction of Jerusalem. Nothing can be 
more preposterous. There is not the slightest evi- 
dence to justify such a course, nor is there the least 
reason for so doing but to sustain an adopted and 
fallacious creed. As well might it be said to refer to 
the destruction of the antediluvians ! There is not 
the slightest reason indicated in the context for such 
a reference. Yet that' must be determined upon to 
save the Satanic sentiment, the wicked are immortal : 
" Thou shalt not surely die." The event here men- 
tioned has not and can not possibly take place before 
" the fires of the last day, and the perdition of ungod- 
ly men [" else men will be twice consumed or burned 
up as the punishment for the sins of a single life. 
" Behold ! the day cometh" — a special, particular day, 
" that shall burn as an oven" — the day shall burn as 
an oven. What day like this did Jerusalem ever see ? 
She did indeed see a time when her streets were con- 
sumed and destroyed by fire ; but were all the proud, 
yea, all the wicked there, to share her demolition ? 
Did the proud Roman pass away with her flames ? 



g6 THE DESTINY OF MAN. m 

Were the antediluvians there, and the untold mil- 
lions who preceded and succeeded her there, to 
smoulder in the fires that swept away that renowned 
city ? How absurd. Is it less absurd to say this 
Scripture refers to Jerusalem ? Not all that were in 
the city were destroyed, let alone the destroyers. 
Multitudes were reserved as captives to grace the 
conqueror's triumph. Yet that day shall burn as an 
oven on this spacious earth ; and all the proud, yea, 
all that do wickedly, shall be stubble. Sinners of 
every kind and grade, of every clime, of every age, 
and under every circumstance, shall be stubble ; and 
that day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the 
Lord of hosts ; notwithstanding the declaration of 
the devil and the learned deluded, who say, " Thou 
shalt not surely die ;" Thou art immortal — " shall 
burn them up, that it shall leave them neither root 
nor branch," neither in this earth, nor in hell, nor 
in the new earth : not a vestige left of the wicked, 
in heaven, earth, or hell ; for that day shall burn 
them up, saith the Lord of hosts. I ask my oppo- 
nents, and every reader, if God wished to reveal to 
mankind that in the final judgment he would destroy 
all those who were in opposition to hrs government, 
what language could be used more appropriate and 
positive than that used by Malachi in this announce- 
ment ? Yet men will audaciously attempt to change 
the truth of God into a lie. I really tremble in view 
of such wanton, uncalled-for sacrilege. The wise 
man says, Proverbs 14 : 12 : " There is a way which 
seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are 
the ways of death." 1 Cor. 10 : 12 : " Wherefore, 



MALACHL 97 

let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he 
fall." 

It is no small thing to charge God with bringing 
into being untold millions of human creatures with 
a sinful nature, and under very unfavorable circum- 
stances for the acceptance of salvation through Christ, 
and then, for the sins of this mortal life, hold them 
in eternal, conscious writhings in a lake of fire and 
brimstone ! A cruelty no language can express ; an 
injustice of which no lawgiver could be guilty ; a suf- 
fering no crime or crimes in the universe could jus- 
tify ; an ordeal beyond the possibility of endurance ; 
a lie only becoming the devil ; a sacrilege meriting 
nothing less than extinction, and that eternal ! 

Should a man stand up for the honor of a friend ? 
Should not the creature stand up for the honor of his 
Maker ? What son, worthy of the name, ever lis- 
tened to the defamation of an affectionate and con- 
siderate parent with complacency ? Shall a child of 
God listen to, and that without rebuke, the charge 
that his heavenly Father, the God of wisdom, justice, 
love, and mercy, will hold the greater part of his in- 
telligent human creatures in eternal sufferings, which 
neither language nor the eternity which he inhabits 
can even faintly describe ? I have no language to 
express my horror and indignation of such a creed. 
It is the soul of defamation, and that, too, of infinite 
purity and love. It would seem that the very fumes 
of hell were too pure to vibrate a sound, a sentiment 
so foul, so fallacious, so sacrilegious. Yet men pro- 
fessing godliness smile complacently on the theme, 
and glory in their fond anticipations of the eternal, 



98 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

indescribable sufferings of their fellows and their 
friends in the eternal abyss of woe ! Who is more fit 
for this terrible doom than the thoughtful, deliberate 
advocate of this uncalled-for libel ? Of all the wonders 
in the entire universe of God, there is not one which 
will equal this, that the intelligence of earth should 
be so moulded, fashioned, and systematized, by the 
arch foe of God and man, to malign the Most High! 
To charge God, who " so loved the world that he gave 
his only-begotten Son to die, that whosoever believ- 
eth on him might not perish " — might not become 
extinct — " but have everlasting life ;" I say, to charge 
God with forgetting the love which prompted such a 
sacrifice to save man from extinction, and then to im- 
bibe such an eternal implacability and revenge as to 
hold these same creatures in eternal conscious mis- 
ery, is too horrible to contemplate, let alone to fold 
in our credence. It is the very essence of falsehood, 
the embodiment of error and purest extract of im- 
piety. Love is the Christian's life — sympathy for 
human suffering is the twin sister of Christian love. 
They are inseparable. Doubtful, indeed, if not posi- 
tively wrong, is any disposition, sentiment, or belief, 
which has the least tendency to undermine the one 
or destroy the other. Satan's cruel designs are quite 
far advanced when he succeeds in drawing across the 
smiling face of love the faintest trace of suspicion or 
want of sympathy. But when this suspicion of the 
love, goodness, and mercy of God, which his word 
says endureth forever, advances to charges of cruel- 
ty, malice, and revenge in the divine character, and 
renders the sympathies of a god-like nature imper- 



MALACHI. 99 

vious to human woes, supposed to be indescribable 
and unending, his fiendish designs would seem quite 
nearly accomplished. The pure Christian spirit will 
readily appreciate this sentiment, while a professed 
Christian life, tinctured with pride and not fully im- 
bued with love, might treat it very indifferently ; yet 
the truth remains unimpaired — nothing impure or un- 
holy shall ever enter into the kingdom of God. The 
advice of wisdom is, consider cautiously, but never 
embrace, that which has a tendency to diminish our 
confidence in God, our love for his attributes or our 
sympathies for his creatures. An eternal scene of 
misery ever witnessed by the pure would have a sin- 
gular tendency to familiarize ourselves with suffering, 
impair our affection, and diminish our sympathetic 
nature. Thus we would ever approximate the prin- 
ciple of evil, and somewhere in the annals of futurity 
we would find ourselves in affinity with the destroyer. 
This would be the natural tendency and inevitable 
consequence of an association with the idea that the 
wicked were immortal in their sin and misery. 

No one is justified in cherishing such a belief, un- 
less it should be set forth in the clearest and most 
indubitable manner, on the pages of divine revelation. 
This is not only not done, but there is not the least 
semblance of it. On the contrary, the destruction 
of the enemies of God is set forth in the strongest 
and most positive manner, again and again, that lan- 
guage can possibly convey it. No truth, in the whole 
scope of revelation, is more fully and manifestly re- 
vealed than the final destruction of the finally impeni- 
tent. 



100 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

If it were possible to make this Scripture refer to 
the destruction of Jerusalem, I would despair of hav- 
ing any power of preventing the infidel from expung- 
ing from the word of God all evidence of any future 
for the human family. We should be careful how we 
treat the word of life, lest we find our feet stepping 
in the paths of error and in the walks of death. To 
turn such passages as this over to temporal devasta- 
tions and judgments, it would not be difficult to prove 
that, from the account of the origin of the world to 
Christ, we had no revelation of a future existence for 
our race. The infidel taunt, that the Old Testament 
Scriptures were silent on the destiny of man, would 
be verified. Thus we can understand to what straits 
a fallacious theory will drive men. I would say to all 
skeptics, and my deluded brethren, God has not been 
wanting in giving us a clear and sufficient revelation 
of man's future destiny. The evidence of the immor- 
tality of the righteous, in the resurrection, and the 
destruction or non-immortality of the wicked, is abun- 
dant in the Old and New Testaments. No one need 
fear or doubt. 

Malachi 4 : 2, 3 : " But unto you who fear my name 
shall the Sun of Righteousness arise, with healing in 
her wings ; and ye shall go forth and grow up as 
calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the 
wicked ; for they shall be ashes under the soles of 
your feet, in the day that I shall do this, saith the 
Lord of hosts." When has this pledge been realized 
by those who feared the Lord ? It has not and can 
not until the day arrives mentioned in the former 
verse, which shall burn as an oven, and which shall 



MALACHI. 101 

burn up the wicked, so that there shall not be left of 
them root or branch. The promise is, that at that 
time, when the wicked are burned up, they will be 
reduced to ashes ; and it will be a necessary conse- 
quence, if the righteous inhabit the new, earth, that 
they will walk upon their ashes. This prophecy will 
be realized when the righteous are immortal and the 
Saviour's promise is fulfilled, "The meek shall in- 
herit the earth." 

While the Scriptures are so uniform and clear that 
the enemies of God are not immortal, why will men 
seek to evade it and embrace the doctrine of eternal, 
conscious misery ? — a doctrine so replete with direful 
consequences, so opposite to reason, philosophy, and 
revelation ; so insulting to the divine attributes, and 
so repugnant to the finer sensibilities of our nature ; 
so abhorrent to all ideas of justice, mercy, and love. 



102 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 



Having passed through the Old Testament, in our 
review, and noticed each allusion to the destiny of the 
wicked, we will now commence a review of the New, 
and carefully bring before the reader every passage 
contained in it which relates to the destiny of man, 
and I have no fears that the different dispensations 
will not harmonize with each other on this subject, 
as they do on every other. It would be a strange 
anomaly should a product of infinite wisdom want 
harmony in its entirety, let alone in its parts. What- 
ever idea can be judiciously gleaned from the Old 
Testament Scriptures, on the question of man's futu- 
rity, must necessarily be had from the New, provided 
both are revelations from God. We will first notice 
what John the Baptist taught on this subject. His 
first allusion may be found in Matthew's gospel, 3:11, 
12 : "I indeed baptize you with water unto repent- 
ance ; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, 
whose shoes I am not worthy to loose ; he shall bap- 
tize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Whose 
fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his 
floor, and gather his wheat into his garner ; but he 
will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." The 
import of this statement is not doubtful or ambigu- 
ous. It is true it is a figurative expression, but from 
this circumstance it is none the less certain and defi- 
nite. It is an unequivocal, positive revelation of a 
grand and most important fact. By the figure of a 
husbandman, his thrashing-floor, his garner, and the 



NEW TESTAMENT. 103 

unquenchable fire, the wheat and the chaff, is repre- 
sented the Creator, heaven, hell, man, and his desti- 
nies. No one need be at a loss in getting the true, 
intended lesson from this representation. Indeed, it 
would seem as though there could be no different 
views from the application of any part of this figure. 
The Redeemer God is the husbandman, the floor is 
the world, the garner is heaven or the future abode 
of the righteous, and the unquenchable fire is the re- 
ceptacle of the wicked, the final place of retribution. 
The wheat is the righteous, and the chaff is the wick- 
ed, or finally impenitent. Some time in the admin- 
istration of his affairs, which, unquestionably, is the 
final judgment, he, as it is represented, will gather 
the righteous into heaven ; but there being no place 
as an abode for the wicked, he will burn up the chaff, 
or the wicked, with unquenchable fire. How can any 
honest, reflecting mind, infer from this plain repre- 
sentation of truth, the immortality of the wicked ? 
There is a remarkable feature in this representation ; 
there is no receptacle for the sinner but a devouring 
fire ! and the expression is emphatic : He will burn 
up the chaff, or the wicked. Of any substance that 
is burned up, what is left but ashes ? Its identity is 
entirely lost. So it is with the wicked. The lesson 
here taught is, that one part of the human family, in 
the judgment, will be received into a place of eternal 
security ; the other will be burned up — become ex- 
tinct. How can it then be said, with the least sem- 
blance of truth, that the wicked will have an endless, 
conscious being ? Who shall be believed, John the 
Baptist — the greatest of the prophets, sent and in- 



104 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

spired by God — or those who boastingly and unblush- 
ingly proclaim the first teachings of the chief spirit 
of evil, " Thou shalt not surely die" ? Is it not passing 
strange that the identical lie which introduced into 
our world such a universal deluge of human woe is 
still propagated, almost universally, by the most 
learned and, professedly, the most devoted to God ? 
Christendom has not another wonder to equal it ! 

That there is no receptacle, or future state, for the 
finally impenitent, is set forth by the Baptist, as it is 
recorded by Luke 3 : 17 — which contains the same 
statement, though in somewhat different phraseolo- 
gy — " Whose fan is in his hands, and he will tho- 
roughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat 
into his garner, (heaven,) but the chaff he will burn 
with fire unquenchable." There is not the slightest 
intimation that the wicked are to abide forever The 
statement is, the chaff, which represents the wicked, 
shall be burned. The statement that the fire is un- 
quenchable, is the most positive assurance that the 
wicked will be consumed. It matters not whether 
this fire is eternal or not ; the chaff, or the wicked, 
are burned up. 

Again, there is nothing in the phrase, "unquench- 
able fire," which indicates that the fire will burn eter- 
nally. It simply means that it can not be extinguished 
until the object upon which it preys is consumed or 
destroyed. Nor is it philosophical to suppose a sub- 
stance to burn without being consumed. In all the 
realm of nature, there is not an article which can 
burn without being corroded or wasted away. Every 
fire, however produced, is only kept in being by the 



NEW TESTAMENT. 105 

decay or consumption of the fuel supplied. To burn, 
simply means to eat up, consume by heat or caloric. 
Then if it is expressly stated, in God's word, that the 
wicked will finally burn up, how dare any one, having 
any reverence for these Scriptures, contradict it, and 
affirm that the same wicked persons live forever — are 
immortal ? 

Lest the captious might not readily accept the 
above statement or argument, I will venture to give 
an illustration. Suppose a house to be enveloped in 
flames, and it is considered beyond the power of man 
to extinguish the fire and save the building ; and the 
owner cries out, Save my furniture and valuables, for 
the fire can not be extinguished ; it is unquenchable. 
Would any one be at a loss to understand him ? 
Think you any one who heard the announcement 
would consider him to have said his house would burn 
eternally ? If no such construction would be given 
to such an expression, under such circumstances, 
why should any Bible reader suppose the wicked will 
live eternally in a lake of fire, because it is said they 
shall be burned in a fire unquenchable ? Yet there 
are multitudes who are so dull or reckless as to quote 
this very declaration of the Baptist as proof of the 
immortality of the unholy. How absurd ! how pre- 
posterous ! Its absurdity is only equaled by the con- 
fident avowal of a belief in this doctrine, when no 
stronger proof can be deduced from God's word to 
sustain it. 

St. John, in his gospel, first chapter, 29th verse, re- 
cords another declaration of the Baptist, which most 
manifestly represents the wicked not immortal : "The 



106 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

next clay John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, 
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin 
of the world !" This is a grand, sublime truth ; but, 
oh ! how few there are who apprehend and realize the 
same. There is no limitation to this announcement : 
" He taketh away the sin" — the entire sin of the entire 
world — by his mercy or by his judgment. I John 
i : 9 : " If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to 
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un- 
righteousness." Also Daniel 9 : 24 : " Seventy weeks 
are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy 
city to finish the transgression," (evidently original 
sin,) " and to make an end of sins, and to make recon- 
ciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting right- 
eousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and 
to anoint the Most Holy." Thus we see, by Daniel, 
Jesus took away oar guilt for Adam's sin — " made an 
end" of it — and will "make an end of" all human 
transgressions. This is the prophecy. St. John says 
Jesus " is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, if we 
confess them." Then how can this Scripture be ful- 
filled, if sins are not confessed, unless they are de- 
stroyed in the judgment — in the fires of the last day ? 
for it expressly says Jesus will make an end of sins. 
Clearly, all sins. Then if there is to be an end of all 
sins, will not the sinner — who will not confess and re- 
pent of his sins, if he is not destroyed with them — be 
absolved from them, and be admitted into heaven ? 
Which of these will the advocate* for the immortality 
of the wicked take ? If the sinner is immortal, as the 
word of God is true, he will be eternally happy. If he 
is not immortal, the Scriptures will be verified, and 



NEW TESTAMENT. 10/ 

he destroyed with his sins in the fires of the last day. 
There is no possibility of evading this question. I 
say, which will you continue to believe and proclaim, 
"Thou shalt surely die," if disobedient, or "Thou shalt 
not surely die," if you transgress ? thou shalt surely 
be immortal. If you affirm the finally impenitent are 
immortal, do you not confess yourself a Universalist, 
a restorationist ? Nay, more ; do you not charge God 
with inconsistency, by saying that he will permit man 
to sin in his volition, and save him without his voli- 
tion ? Do you not understand that, if man can be 
saved without his consent, which the sinner is, if im- 
mortal, he could have been prevented from sinning, 
notwithstanding his power of choice ? 

If you still adhere to the doctrine of the immorta- 
lity of the sinner, do you not virtually, yes, positively, 
aver that the announcement of the Baptist is untrue 
when he exclaims, " Behold the Lamb of God which 
taketh away the sin of the world " ? If he announced 
the truth, will not Jesus take away the sin of the en- 
tire world ? If he does, will not all sinners be ab- 
solved from their transgressions, if immortal ? If 
absolved, will they not be pure, happy saints ? If 
your theory is true, is not the declaration of the Bap- 
tist false ? How are you to reconcile this difficulty ? 
If your theory is true, Universalism is true, and God 
saves the sinner contrary to his wishes, notwithstand- 
ing his declaration, " Ye will not come unto me that 
you may have life ;" and thus contradicts himself. 
If the Baptist proclaims the truth, then the wicked 
are not immortal ; or if immortal, the doctrine of 
Universalism is true. But allowing the fallacy of the 



108 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

doctrine of Universalism, and also the immortality of 
the wicked, according to the announcement of the 
Baptist, the destruction of the wicked, or their entire 
loss of being, is necessary, is inevitable. 

Thus we see that in all the recorded teachings of 
John the Baptist there is not the least intimation of 
an immortality for the wicked, but, on the contrary, 
he taught in the most positive and clearest manner 
their extinction ; that they would be burned up, that 
"Jesus would take away the sin of the world," and 
is found in perfect harmony with the writers of the 
old Scriptures on this subject. 



MATTHEW. 109 



Next we will examine the teachings of our Saviour 
as to this point. The first allusion he makes to the 
destiny of the wicked is in Matthew 5 : 13 : "Ye are 
the salt of the earth ; but if the salt have lost its 
savor, wherewith shall it be salted ? it is thence- 
forth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be 
trodden under foot of men." Men here are addressed 
under the figure of salt ; all understand the saving- 
influence of salt, and its value when possessed of this 
virtue. But when this desirable property is gone or 
lost, all are equally aware of its inutility, its utter 
wort-hlessness, but to be trodden under foot of men. 
How perfectly consonant is this idea with a They shall 
be burned up ;" " They shall be ashes under the soles 
of the righteous' feet." What a perfect agreement 
this in the teachings of the prophet of the Old Testa- 
ment and of the prophet of the New, with the teach- 
ings of the Saviour himself. Is it not the height of 
blasphemy even to imagine that they have leagued 
together to deceive ? And how can you avoid this 
inference if, after their clearness and agreement in 
teaching, it should be a fact that the wicked were 
immortal ? Is it not the clear teachings of the 
Saviour in this first lesson on this subject that the 
finally impenitent are entirely worthless ; will be cast 
out to be trodden under foot of men ? Can any 
honest inquirer for truth infer from this expression 
any idea of immortality for those who are represent- 



110 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

ed so entirely worthless ? Is not the positive teach- 
ing entire extinction ? 

The next reference to this subject of our Saviour 
will be found in this same memorable Sermon on the 
Mount, Matthew 7 : 13, 14 : " Enter ye in at the strait 
gate : for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that 
Jeadeth to destruction, and many there be which go 
in thereat : because strait is the gate, and narrow is 
the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be 
that find it." This figurative manner of teaching by 
our Saviour is quite general ; and there seems to be 
a necessity for it. It is not only difficult, but, some- 
times at least, impossible to convey definite ideas of 
things that are not, but by the representation of 
things that are. Hence this metaphor is introduced 
to convey a just idea of man's condition, candidature, 
and destiny — a journey. By this we are taught that 
there are two general thoroughfares for the human 
family through this probationary life. The entrance 
to one thoroughfare is said to be strait, difficult of 
entrance, from many unnecessary incumbrances ; and 
for these, but few are said to travel in the narrow 
way. The other is represented as a broad way, hav- 
ing a wide entrance, admitting any without any pre- 
paration ; and from its easy entrance and its inde- 
pendent thoroughfare many, the multitude, walk 
therein. Every member of the human family, arriv- 
ing at the age of accountability, chooses one or the 
other of these ways. And here let it be especially 
observed, that the one ends in life, or protracted ex- 
istence ; the other in death, or loss of being. Ante- 
cedent to man's dereliction, the way to immortality 



MATTHEW. Ill 

was by the way of obedience. There were no ob- 
structions in the way to prevent his free approach to 
the true life, which alone had virtue to give a perpe- 
tuity of being, while obedient. Having made a for- 
feiture of life, man was driven from Eden, where grew 
the life-bearing tree, and every avenue of approach 
to the tree of life was barred. In this condition man 
must have lost forever his being, had it not been for 
the promise of a Mediator, who in the future was to be 
the only source of life. Man's access to the present 
source of life is not exactly on the same conditions 
that his approach formerly was to the tree of life in 
Eden. Before his fall, his free approach to the tree 
of life presupposed simply such confidence in his 
Creator as prompted obedience ; since' his banish- 
ment from Paradise man's every approach to the 
fountain of life presupposes a filial fear coupled with 
confidence, which prompts a full confession of and a 
genuine sorrow for every act of disobedience to God. 
These are the terms of salvation from sin and death 
through the mediation of Our Lord and Saviour, 
Jesus Christ. Those who do not comply with these 
terms, the Saviour says, walk in the broad, frequented 
way, which he says leads to and ends in death or 
destruction. Who can be considered so competent 
to teach the truth as the Saviour ? Who better un- 
derstood the use of terms than he ? His statement 
is, that many walk in the broad way, and that way 
ends in destruction. There is not the smallest indi- 
cation that this destruction means any thing else 
but entire destruction or loss of being. Is it not 
wicked to give it any other construction ? Then is 



112 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

it not positive that Christ taught the utter loss of 
being, the non-immortality of the wicked ? It is 
a wanton assumption, an absolute perversion of 
language, and the positive turning of the truth into a 
lie, to say this word destruction means simply loss of 
happiness. The infidel has just as good a right to 
affirm that it should be rendered the loss of misery. 
With such licenses what may not the word of God be 
made to teach ? The true exegesis of this passage 
is, that this broad road ended in the entire destruc- 
tion or extinction of those who walked therein. With 
this declaration of our Lord and Saviour, how can 
any man of thought or honesty believe the wicked 
will live eternally, are immortal ? 

The next -mention of this subject is in Matthew 
7 : 15-20 : " Beware of false prophets, which come to 
you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are raven- 
ing wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits ; do 
men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? 
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit ; 
but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good 
tree can not bring forth evil fruit, neither can a cor- 
rupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that 
bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down, and cast 
into the fire." Can any one fail to understand what 
truth is intended to be conveyed by this scripture ? 
It was evidently intended to guard the people against 
false teachers. As a tree is known by its fruit, so 
men are known by their influence ; as a tree bearing 
bad fruit is cut down and cast into the fire, so are 
men of evil influence. It would be doing great in- 
justice to the figure to apply this cutting down and 



MATTHEW. 113 

casting: into the fire to the death of this mortal life. 
For the good and the bad come alike to this. In this 
respect there is no distinction. In this figure only 
the corrupt trees are cut down and thrown into the 
fire. The good are permitted to live ; are not cut 
down at all. This figure, then, conveys us to a scene 
where its application is natural. At the judgment 
these two classes of men meet. The good live per- 
petually ; the corrupt are cut down and cast into 
the lake of fire to be consumed, which is the second 
death. How natural, how consistent, how significant 
this application and construction ! As such, how 
forcible the teaching that the wicked have not an 
eternal life ? 

Our Saviour again alludes to this question, in the 
same discourse— Matthew 7 : 24-28 : "Therefore, who- 
soever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, 
I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his 
house upon a rock ; and the rain descended, and the 
floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that 
house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. 
And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, 
and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish 
man, which built his house upon the sand ; and the 
rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds 
blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell ; and great 
was the fall of it." How can any one with common 
sense and common honesty mistake the lesson here 
taught. The two classes of the human family are 
here represented : the considerate, the inconsiderate, 
the wise and the foolish, the righteous and the un- 
godly. The one class build upon a rock, which is 



114 THE I^ESTIN^ OF MAN, 

Christ ; the other class build upon the sand. The 
wise are eternally secure, being on a foundation that 
is abiding ; and the foolish are swept away in the Al- 
mighty's deluge of wrath, having no foundation for 
being. What mind can be so lost to the force of lan- 
guage and the beauty and application of metaphors 
as to derive, from this passage, the intimation for an 
immortality to the wicked ? This is a scene in the 
judgment, and the wicked are swept away in a deluge 
of wrath. Does our Saviour indicate any restoration 
or continuation of being, to the wicked, while he so 
clearly assures the eternal security of the good ? 

The next reference to this subject, by our Saviour, 
is in Matthew 10 : 28 : " Fear not them which kill the 
body, but are not able to kill the soul ; but rather 
fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body 
in hell." This saying of our Lord appears to me to 
be a complete refutation of the argument, chiefly re- 
lied upon by some, to prove the immortality of the 
soul, from its being " immaterial, therefore indestruct- 
ible — -therefore immortal." Such theorists, or logi- 
cians, are necessitated to prove the truthfulness of 
the first two propositions, beyond a rational doubt, 
before they are logically permitted to infer the third. 
Either one of these, shown to be untrue, vitiates the 
entire argument. No one can deny these premises. 
Does not our Saviour say, in the plainest terms, that, 
the second proposition is not true — which is, the soul 
is indestructible ? Does he not say that God is able 
to destroy soul and body in hell? Then, if the soul 
can be destroyed, it evidently is not indestructible ; 
therefore not necessarily immortal. So the soul is 



MATTHEW. 115 

not proven to be immortal, and Mr. Drew's attenuat- 
ed sophistry vanishes with a touch. As no one can 
doubt our Lord's declaration, that man can kill the 
body, so no man can rationally doubt that God can 
kill body and soul in hell. And I do not see how any 
true believer in God's word can believe that he will 
not destroy all the souls of the finally impenitent after 
the judgment. Irreverent, indeed, must be that in- 
dividual who will affirm that the Saviour will appeal 
to man's fears, when there is no foundation for them. 
He meant all he said when he warned the people to 
fear God, who is able to destroy soul and body in hell. 
This declaration of our blessed Redeemer should for- 
ever settle this question, and be sufficient proof that 
the soul of the wicked is not immortal. 

The next mention of this subject is in Matthew 10 : 
39 : " He that findeth his life shall lose it ; and he 
that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." The 
true import of this passage is positively fatal to the 
idea of man's immortality. Though paradoxical, it is 
not obscure, nor is it ambiguous. This truth was 
given by Christ to his disciples, when both he and 
they were liable to become martyrs ; and what truth 
could have been more seasonable and encouraging at 
that juncture ? The true exegesis is, " He that find- 
eth his life," that is, avoids natural death by swerv- 
ing from or betraying the truth, " shall lose it." Lose 
what ? Not his natural or probationary life, for that 
he saves by his unfaithfulness or treachery. Then 
what does he lose by his cowardice ? Evidently his 
resurrected life. Then is it not evident from this 
course he saves or retains this present, conscious life, 



Il6 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

but loses his future, resurrected, conscious life ? If 
he loses his resurrected life, what is it but the second 
death ? From the first or natural death, he had a 
resurrection, through the sacrifice of the Son of God ; 
but from the second there is no resurrection ; " for 
there is no more sacrifice for sin." Hence it is abso- 
lutely certain that the wicked are not immortal. 
" And he that loseth his life for my sake" — that is, 
loses his natural or probationary life, through his in- 
tegrity, or, " for the sake of Christ — shall find it." 
When ? Evidently not in this world, but in the re- 
surrection ; and the Christian's resurrected life is not 
exposed to the second death, therefore it will be eter- 
nal, or an immortality. How plain, how sublimely 
beautiful, is this truth ! He that saves his natural 
life, through treachery and impiety, shall lose forever 
his purchased, resurrected life ; but he that loses his 
natural life through his integrity, for Christ's sake, 
shall find his purchased, resurrected life, and enjoy 
it forever. This is the declaration of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ, that the righteous, in the resur- 
rection, shall be immortal ; but the finally impenitent, 
having forfeited the resurrected life, shall lose it eter- 
nally — become extinct. With this Scripture before 
the mind of the Christian, how dare he contradict his 
Saviour, and declare that the wicked are immortal ? 

In Matthew T 13 : 30, our Saviour alludes again to the 
destiny of man : " Let both grow together until the 
harvest ; and in the time of the harvest I will say to 
the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and 
bind them in bundles to burn them ; but gather the 
wheat into my barn." If there could be any thing 



MATTHEW. 1 1 7 

obscure in this Scripture, it is perfectly explained by 
the Saviour in verses 36 to 43 of the same chapter. 
Said the disciples, " Declare unto us the parable of 
the tares of the field. He answered and said unto 
them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of 
Man ; the field is the world ; the good are the chil- 
dren of the kingdom ; but the tares are the children 
of the wicked one ; the enemy that sowed them is the 
devil ; the harvest is the end of the world ; and the 
reapers are the angels. As, therefore, the tares are 
gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the 
end of the world. The Son of Man shall send forth 
his angels ; and they shall gather out of his kingdom 
all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, and 
shall cast them into a furnace of fire ; there shall be 
wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the right- 
eous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their 
Father." It is impossible to reveal the immortality 
of the righteous and the everlasting extinction of the 
unholy in a clearer manner than it is done in this 
parable. The two classes of the human family — the 
righteous and the unrighteous — are represented by 
the wheat and the tares growing together in the hus- 
bandman's field. Both classes are permitted to grow 
together until the judgment. Then they are sepa- 
rated ; the righteous receive eternal life, or immor- 
tality ; the wicked fall into eternal death, or extinc- 
tion. This is the testimony of Jesus. The declara- 
tion of the adversary is, " Thou shalt not surely die." 
The wicked are immortal. With this clear, positive 
revelation from the blessed lips of our Redeemer, 
does it not seem discrediting to a Christian to ask 



Il8 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

him which he will accept and believe ? As discredit- 
able as this may appear, the great mass of Christians 
of this day accept, believe, and publish the declara- 
tion of the chief spirit of evil as true, and ignore the 
revelation of the Most High. And for this humble 
exposition of the Bible theory of man's destiny we 
anticipate being misrepresented, maligned, and anath- 
ematized by those whose creed would be prevalent 
and everlasting love, mercy, and justice. If the cred- 
ulous Roman Catholic for his bowing down adoring- 
ly before the image of Christ, his cross, and his mo- 
ther, is likely to miss of heaven, what hope can there 
be for him who will charge his Maker and Redeemer 
as possessed of eternal hate, malice, and injustice ? 
Ye men of learning, thought, and of the nineteenth 
century of Christendom, I ask, Is not God's glory 
tarnished — yea, blasphemed — by your credence and 
avowal that the righteous God will hold the majority 
of his intelligent creatures, of the human family, in 
torments unending and indescribable, in a lake of fire 
and brimstone ? I am content to leave you with 
your conscience and your Judge. The Judge of all 
the earth will do right. Christ says the wicked, in 
the judgment, will be burned up. 

The next mention of this subject will be found in 
Matthew 13 : 47-51 : "Again, the kingdom of heaven 
is like unto a net, -that was cast into the sea, and 
gathered of every kind. Which when it was full, 
they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the 
good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it 
be in the end of the world ; the angels shall come forth 
and sever the wicked from among the just ; and shall 



MATTHEW. 119 

cast them into a furnace of fire ; there shall be wail- 
ing and gnashing of teeth." Let me ask the candid, 
what idea should be drawn from this expression, " in 
the end of the world" God will cast the wicked away ? 
Is it immortality in sin or extinction of being ? 
Would it not be decided by every one uneducated 
on this subject that it was loss of being ? But the 
explanation given by the Saviour of this parable 
settles the question. For in the end of the world 
the wicked shall be cast into a furnace of fire, and 
there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. The 
favorer of immortality for the wicked says this does 
not favor extinction. Now, is that true or untrue ? 
There is no intimation that they are ever taken out 
of this furnace. The very fact that they wail and 
gnash their teeth is positive evidence that the fire 
takes effect upon them, and they are being consum- 
ed. If they were not being consumed, or wasting 
away, they would not be in misery. If they waste 
away, however slowly, in time they will come to 
naught. How perfectly in harmony is this with the 
announcement in Psalm 37 : 20 : "But the wicked 
shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as 
the fat of lambs ; they shall consume ; into smoke 
shall they consume away." Any one conversant with 
the Jewish sacrifices could well understand how the 
wicked could come to naught when they are com- 
pared to the fat of lambs. This is Bible, whether 
men now receive it or not. After Jesus had declared 
these truths to the multitude, he asks them, " Have 
you understood all these things ?" The reply was, 
they had. Think you they had inferred from his 



120 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

teaching that the wicked would be forever consum- 
ing, and be never consumed ? Folly in the extreme. 
No they could have inferred nothing of the kind for 
the wicked but consumption, destruction, extinction. 

Again, in Matthew 15 : 13, our Saviour said, 
" Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not 
planted shall be rooted up." Can there be any doubt 
as to the truth here revealed ? Should intelligent and 
honest minds differ as to the import of this scripture ? 
In the entire universe God has not planted or cul- 
tivated a principle either inimical to his government 
or dishonoring to himself. An enemy has sown 
broadcast the principle of evil, with all its multifari- 
ous sins ; and what is the pledge of our Lord and 
Saviour ? " Every plant which my heavenly Father 
has not planted shall be rooted up." Glorious, bless- 
ed promise — shall, be rooted up. Where ? In God's 
entire domain. How simple, how unjust to limit it, 
if God has not, to this terrestrial globe, should 
noxious plants in other spheres be planted. Every 
plant here or elsewhere, which grows to the dishonor 
of the universal Sovereign, shall be rooted up ; not 
simply pulled, but rooted up. Not a fibre shall be 
left which might reproduce itself. " Rooted up," 
never to be planted. Does not this convey an un- 
avoidable idea of death, destruction, loss of vitality — 
when the plant derives its very life from the soil, 
and it is entirely extracted ? When every allusion of 
God's word to the destiny of man so positively 
ignores the immortality of the wicked, how dare any 
man proclaim it ? 

The Saviour again resorts to this subject in 



MATTHEW. 121 

Matthew 16 : 25, 26: "Whosoever will save his life 
shall lose it ; and whosoever will lose his life for my 
sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he 
shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? 
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?" 
The former part of this scripture has been quoted 
and commented upon heretofore ; upon the latter 
part we would make a remark. This is a significant 
question, " For what is a man profited, if he shall 
gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? or what 
shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?" To lose 
is to be dispossessed of any thing. The value of the 
soul can be estimated by the value or price paid for 
it, which was nothing short of the incarnation and 
death of the Son of God. In comparison with this, 
all other considerations dwindle into insignificance. 
The value of this mundane system is nothing. The 
price of the human soul's redemption is beyond com- 
putation. But redemption from what ? From death, 
a death from which man had no promise of an anti- 
dote ; the loss of life, from which we have not the 
least evidence of a resuscitation ; a total extinction 
of being. The expression is clear and definite ; there 
is no price to recover the loss. It is extinction for- 
ever. The loss is of the soul ; the very thing of which 
we are inquiring, whether it be immortal or not im- 
mortal. And our Saviour says, in this scripture, it 
may be lost. Is he not competent to decide this 
question ? Will any confront him and affirm it can 
not be lost ? ' If it can be lost, it is not immortal ; and 
when it is lost, to say it is immortal, is simply absurd. 
Matthew 18 : 11 : "For the Son of man is come 



122 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

to save that which was lost." Lost by the sin of 
Adam. What was this loss,? Evidently the loss of 
life. If this is true, the argument is at an end. Man 
is not immortal ; for no being can be immortal that 
is liable to the loss of life. Should men affirm, as 
they do, that this loss by Adam's sin was simply the 
loss of purity and happiness, I ask, if this were true, 
would it not render the death of Jesus superfluous ? 
Do not the Scriptures teach that Jesus died that 
man might live ? The death of Jesus, was it the loss 
of happiness or the loss of life ? Evidently the loss 
of life. Why ? To save man from the loss of life 
or death which he had. incurred by Adam's sin, by a 
resurrection therefrom. If Christ sacrificed his life 
that man might have a revivification or resurrection 
from his natural death, then the death to which man 
was amenable for Adam's disobedience was the loss 
of life, and not simply the loss of purity or happiness. 
If the loss of life in natural death would have been 
eternal without the death and resurrection of Jesus, 
how can the loss of life, in the second death, fail to 
be eternal, when there will be no death of the Son 
of God to give another life ? Is not the death of the 
natural life the same as the death of the resurrected 
life ? The one denominated the first, the other the 
second death ; the one having an antidote in the 
Saviour, the other having no antidote. 

Will any ask, did not St. Paul say, Ephesians 2 : I, 
" And you hath he quickened, who were dead in tres- 
passes and sins" ? That is, dead while you were liv- 
ing. Yes, this is the apostle's language. Now, I 
would ask, Is this what is called spiritual death ? If 



MATTHEW. 123 

so, we may understand what it means. The expres- 
sion, " You hath he quickened, who were dead in 
trespasses and sins," can mean nothing more than 
that you, who had forfeited the purchased life by sin, 
and who were dead or exposed to the second death, 
hath he quickened, or made alive again, or reinvest- 
ed with the purchased life by regeneration, or by 
pardon of sins has given a new justification to life. 
Then a spiritual death can mean no more and nothing 
less than a forfeiture of the purchased life while yet 
in a state of probation. This very much simplifies 
and makes intelligible what we mean by spiritual 
death. It means simply living in a state of condem- 
nation to the second death, or living a life exposed 
to the second death, from which Jesus came to save 
us through repentance and faith, as well as from the 
power of natural death caused by the sin of Adam. 
A spiritual life then means the purchased life which 
is not forfeited, nor is in condemnation to the second 
death. This will prevent much confusion if em- 
braced. 

The parable of a king making a marriage feast for 
his son, is given to teach the destiny of the wicked. 
Matthew 22 : 12, 13: "Then the king said to the 
servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him 
away, and cast him into outer darkness ; there shall 
be weeping and gnashing of teeth." My opponents 
may say this does not teach loss of being, or extinc- 
tion. Let us see. The advocate for immortality 
will not confess himself a Universalist, and say that 
God will bring him out. of this place. This man re- 
presents the wicked. Then, if they are immortal, 



124 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

they will continue weeping and gnashing their teeth 
eternally. Does not the word of God positively deny 
this ? Rev. 2 1 : 4, 5 : " And God shall wipe away 
all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no more 
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there 
be any more pain ; for the former things are passed 
away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold 
I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write ; 
for those words are true and faithful." Then, is it 
not evident, that if the finally impenitent are not 
taken out of the lake of fire, where there will be 
weeping and gnashing of teeth, they are burned up, 
become extinct? if at this time, which is after the 
judgment, and after the purification of the earth by 
fire, " there shall be no more tears, nor sorrow, nor 
crying, nor pain." Is not this a positive affirmation 
that their weeping, sorrow, and pain cease forever ? 
Then, if they are immortal, are they not happy ? If 
they are not happy, according to God's word, are 
they not extinct ? 

CHAPTER XXV. 

The parable of the ten virgins, etc. 

1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened 
unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went 
forth to meet the bridegroom. 

2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 

3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and 
took no oil with them : 

4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their 
lamps. 



MATTHEW. 125 

5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumber- 
ed and slept. 

6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, 
the bridegroom cometh ; go ye out to meet him. 

7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their 
lamps. 

8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of 
your oil ; for our lamps are gone out. 

9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so ; lest 
there be not enough for us and you : but go ye rather 
to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. 

10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom 
came ; and they that were ready went in with him 
to the marriage : and the door was shut. 

1 1 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, 
Lord, Lord, open to us. 

12 But he answered and said, Verily, I say unto 
you, I know you not. 

13 Watch therefore ; for ye know neither the day 
nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. 

14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travel- 
ing into a far country, who called his own servants, 
and delivered unto them his goods. 

15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another 
two, and to another one ; to every man according to 
his several ability ; and straightway took his journey. 

16 Then he that had received the five talents 
went and traded with the same, and made them other 
five talents. 

17 And likewise he that had received two, he also 
gained other two. 



126 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

1 8 But he that had received one went and digged 
in the earth, and hid his lord's money. 

19 After a long time the lord of those servants 
cometh, and reckoneth with them. 

20 And so he that had received five talents came 
and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou 
deliveredst unto me five talents : behold, I have 
gained beside them five talents more. 

21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good 
and faithful servant : thou hast been faithful over a 
few things, I will make thee ruler over many things : 
enter thou into the joy of thy lord. 

22 He also that had received two talents came and 
said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents : 
behold, I have gained two other talents beside them 

23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and' 
faithful servant ; thou hast been faithful over a few 
things, I will make thee ruler over many things : en- 
ter thou into the joy of thy lord. 

24 Then he which had received the one talent 
came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an 
hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and 
gathering where thou hast not strewed : 

25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent 
in the earth : lo, there thou hast that is thine. 

26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou 
wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap 
where I sowed not, and gather where I have not 
strewed : 

27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money 
to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should 
have received mine own with usury. 



MATTHEW. 127 

28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it 
unto him which hath ten talents. 

29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, 
and he shall have abundance : but from him that 
hath not shall be taken away even that which he 
hath. 

30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer 
darkness : there shall be weeping and gnashing of 
teeth. 

31 When the Son of man shall come in his 
glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he 
sit upon the throne of his glory : 

32 And before him shall be gathered all nations : 
and he shall separate them one from another, as a 
shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats : 

33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, 
but the goats on the left. 

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his 
right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit 
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of 
the world : 

35 For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat : I 
was thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, 
and ye took me in : 

36 Naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and 
ye visited me : I was in prison, and ye came unto 
me. 

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, 
Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee ? 
or thirsty, and gave thee drink ? 

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee 
in ? or naked, and clothed thee ? 



128 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and 
came unto thee ? 

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, 
Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it 
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have 
done it unto me. 

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left 
hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting 
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels 

42 For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no 
meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink 

43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in : naked, 
and ye clothed me not : sick, and in prison, and ye 
visited me not. 

44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, 
when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a 
stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not 
minister unto thee ? 

45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I 
say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of 
the least of these, ye did it not to me. 

46 And these shall go away into everlasting pun- 
ishment : but the righteous into life eternal. 

Matthew 25 : 41 : " Then shall he say unto them 
on his left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into 
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." 
There is not the slightest intimation in this passage 
that the wicked will last forever ; even though the 
fire should be without end. But it is certain this fire 
will not last eternally ; for the Scriptures teach that 
"the heavens and earth that now are, are reserved 



MATTHEW. I 29 

unto the fires of the last day, and the perdition of 
ungodly men." What for ? For purification ; " to 
burn up the works of the devil." When this is done, 
we are promised " new heavens and a new earth in 
which dwelleth righteousness." It can not be ex- 
pected that the new heavens and earth will be enve- 
loped in these flames eternally. The new heavens 
and earth are the old heavens and earth purified by 
fire ; hence these fires will cease forever when the 
works of the devil are burned up. Everlasting here 
means the same as it does when used with reference 
to the hills, which are said to be everlasting. It 
will last sufficiently long to burn up all the dross. 
This passage can not be made to teach unending 
misery. If it could be proven that the word ever- 
lasting here meant unending, it would only prove 
the wicked would be burned up in it. 

We now come to the Scripture upon which our 
opponents chiefly rely for proof that the wicked are 
immortal in their sin and misery. But when it is 
carefully and candidly considered, I am confident it 
will be seen to teach no such doctrine ; but, on the 
contrary, it will be found to teach, in the clearest 
manner, that the wicked will be finally destroyed. I 
confess it is somewhat singular that honest minds 
should imbibe entirely opposite views from a plain, 
unequivocal statement. This may be the result of 
education or prejudice. The controverted passage 
may be found in Matthew 26 : 46 : " And these shall 
go away into everlasting punishment, but the right- 
eous into life eternal." We both agree that the word 
" these" represents the wicked, and that the words 



130 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

everlasting and eternal, in this passage, mean the 
same thing — unending duration ; both being trans- 
lated from the same word in the Greek. Thus far 
there is no disagreement between us. Some may be 
ready to say, then there can be no different construc- 
tion. But there can be and is ; though, I admit, 
there should not be any. My opponents say it teaches 
most clearly the immortality of the wicked ; and I 
say it teaches most positively the wicked are not im- 
mortal. Laying aside all prejudice, let us consider 
this revelation with candor. " These," the wicked, 
" shall go away into everlasting punishment." In 
this sentence, what word does the adjective everlast- 
ing qualify ? Evidently the word punishment. Then 
it is the punishment that is said to be everlasting, 
and not these, or the wicked. Then if the punishment 
of the wicked is said to be everlasting, we have only 
to ascertain the Bible meaning of the word punish- 
ment as it is used with reference to the wicked, to 
understand their destiny ; whether it be everlasting 
life in misery, or whether it be everlasting destruc- 
tion, death, or loss of life. Now, if the Bible will de- 
fine the meaning of the word punishment, which is 
said to be everlasting, we shall have this question 
settled, and understand the true destiny of the finally 
impenitent. 2 Thess. 1 : 6-9: " Seeing it is a right- 
eous thing with God to recompense tribulation to 
them that trouble you ; and to you that are troubled, 
rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed 
from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, 
taking vengeance on them that know not God, and 
that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 



MATTHEW. 131 

Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction 
from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of 
his power : when he shall come to be glorified in his 
saints, and be admired in all them that believe." 
" Who shall be punished." What with ? Hear the 
definition of punishment : " with everlasting destruc- 
tion." Then it is clear that the punishment of the 
wicked, which is here defined to be destruction, is 
everlasting, and not the wicked themselves. Now, is 
it not evident from these Scriptures that the destiny 
of the wicked is everlasting destruction, and not ever- 
lasting life ? The destruction of the wicked is of the 
same duration as the life of the righteous, which is 
everlasting. The one everlasting nonentity, the 
other everlasting life or immortality. 

But it is asserted that there is no punishment where 
there is no consciousness. This evidently is not true. 
If God asserts that the extinction, unconsciousness, 
or destruction of the wicked, is punishment, it should 
be deemed sufficient, though the wisdom of the sup- 
posed wise aver to the contrary. So I leave it to the 
candor and common sense of every reader, if this 
acknowledged strongest proof in the Bible for the 
immortality of the wicked does not turn itself against 
this libel on the Creator, and give the most irrefraga- 
ble testimony that God has not brought into being 
untold millions of rational creatures, to punish them 
with the most inconceivable tortures during his entire 
sovereignty over the universe. 



132 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 



Mark records a declaration of our Saviour with re- 
ference to this subject, which is not mentioned in 
Matthew's gospel. It is found in chapter 9, verse 44 : 
" Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not 
quenched." This expression, without doubt, was de- 
signed to be a clear revelation of the destiny of the 
wicked ; and it is another passage on which the 
favorers of the immortality of the unholy principally 
rely for the proof of their theory. But when exam- 
ined carefully with an eye to the truth and the cir- 
cumstances attending its utterance, I am confident it 
will manifest an entirely different idea or doctrine. 
Prejudice or sophistry should have no part in form- 
ing a belief in God's word. Let us look at this decla- 
ration as we shall wish we had, when all sophistry 
and error shall be seen as such. Christ is teaching 
in his usual way, using familiar metaphors to convey 
grand and important truths, thus not only making 
them impressive, but bringing them to the compre- 
hension of very inferior intellects. If our Saviour 
wished to convey the grand, sublime idea of an eter- 
nal conscious being, think you that he would have 
chosen two of the frailest things in nature to repre- 
sent this truth ? Of all the things with which we 
are acquainted, what is more frail or short-lived than 
the worm or fire ? The gentlest touch will crush the 
one, and the smallest quantity of water wall quench 
the other. These metaphors could not be made to 
convey the sublime idea of immortality, of eternal 



MARK. 133 

being. Nor can Christ be understood as doing this, 
without the greatest injustice to truth and murderous 
violence to language. In his word, we find he takes, 
from every department of nature, animate and inani- 
mate, objects to convey and illustrate his views. 
Here, to define and manifest in the clearest possible 
manner the destiny of the wicked, so transient and 
sure to pass away, he uses these ephemeral objects. 
To understand and appreciate our Saviours beautiful 
illustration of the sinner's futurity, the thoughtful, 
observing individual needs only to walk through his 
nursery or orchard. Amid the thriftiness and ver- 
dure of the scene, he will likely discover one or more 
of his trees giving symptoms of decay ; the foliage 
becoming shriveled and prematurely seared. He in- 
quires for the cause ; the soil and surroundings seem 
as favorable for this as for its fellows. But on closer 
examination, he discovers traces of the destroyer. 
Near the ground, the borer has commenced his de- 
predations upon the body of the tree. Silently, 
slowly, but surely, the worm is eating his way to 
the heart. If the worm is not extracted or de- 
stroyed, what will be the result ? The tree will 
surely die. If the worm is not suffered to live, 
but is destroyed, what will be the result ? The 
tree will live. Do you not see the beauty, the ap- 
plicability of the figure, the certainty and the force 
of the lesson ? That as surely as the tree will die, 
if the worm lives, so surely will the sinner perish, 
die, be destroyed ; for he goes where God says the 
worm dies not. Do you not see in the certainty of 
the worm's living is the certainty of the tree's dy- 



134 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

ing ? From this illustration, do you not understand 
that Christ taught the positive certainty of the de- 
struction of the finally impenitent ? in that he said 
they should go where their destroyer should not die 
till they were destroyed ? Nothing can be more 
beautiful, expressive, definite, and positive. But how 
is it as to the other symbol, fire ? The same idea 
is manifested with equal clearness and impressive- 
ness. "And tire fire is not quenched." Suppose 
a house on fire ; the neighbors rush to the rescue, 
with pails and water, and commence vigorous^ the 
attempt to extinguish the flames. The occupant, 
understanding its arrangement and structure, is 
confident the flames can not be arrested, and desi- 
rous of saving his furniture, cries out, " The fire can 
not be extinguished ; it is unquenchable ; carry forth 
whatever is movable !" What idea, think you, do the 
neighbors get from this earnest statement ? Would 
any common-sense man understand him to say the 
fire would burn eternally ? What folly to suppose it 4 
They would, without mistake, take his true meaning. 
The house must burn up, without the possibility of 
saving it. I ask every candid reader, Does the Sa- 
viour speak with any less distinctness ? Does he 
any more than assure the utter consumption of the 
wicked by the expression, " The fire will not be 
quenched," will not be extinguished until the ob- 
ject shall be attained, the burning up of all the work 
of the devil ? Is it not passing strange that learned 
men will so mutilate this beautiful and expressive 
declaration of our Lord, so as to make it convey the 
horrible doctrine of an everlasting life in sin, rebel- 



MARK. 135 

lion, and misery ? Thus charging the Sovereign 
Ruler of the universe with such a course of conduct 
toward his intelligent creatures as would shame 
even the prince of the power of the air. I would 
inquire whether every intelligent, candid reader of 
this passage should not give it the easy, consistent, 
legitimate, and philosophical construction we attach 
to it ? Does it not teach in the most positive man- 
ner the utter extinction of the ungodly ? Nothing 
appears more astounding than that men will imbibe 
and feach the immortality of the sinner, as though 
it came from the Scriptures, when not an intimation 
of it can be found within ..the folds of the Bible. 
May God pity the obtuseness, obscurity, and blind- 
ness of such minds ! 



I36 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 



St. Luke in 9 : 25, records a saying of our Lord 
in somewhat different language from that used by St. 
Matthew, which greatly intensifies the view we took 
of it there. The phraseology is this : " For what is 
a man advantaged if he gain the whole world, and 
lose himself, or be a castaway ?" This declaration of 
our Saviour, it would seem, would be sufficient, with- 
out any other, to put this question at rest. The ad- 
vocate for immortality says the sinner only loses his 
happiness, his purity, his heaven. Christ says he 
loses all these, and much more. He loses himself. 
Man receives from his Creator his body, his life, his 
soul ; and it takes all these to constitute him a man, 
a living soul, or himself. Then, to lose himself, does 
he not lose his life, soul, and body ? How can he be 
said to be immortal, " and be a castaway" ? What is 
worthy to be called " a castaway" ? Common sense 
says any thing that is considered, and is, in fact, 
worthless. In this case, worthless to whom ? Not 
to the reader, nor to myself, nor to any other man ; 
but worthless to God, his Creator. It would not be 
strange if we, in our limited view of things, should 
retain in possession many things that were worthless, 
thinking they might be some time in the future of 
service. But when the all-wise God views a thing 
worthless, and casts it away, it will have no con- 
sideration from God or the good, and it can be ex- 
pected to have no part of Omnipotent power to keep 
it in being. To be a castaway from God, and by God, 



LUKE. 137 

is an evident proof of extinction. If it is not, I ask, 
in the name of Him who said the wicked man " should 
lose himself and be a castaway," what language could 
convey the thought ? The time of such ignorance 
God may wink at ; but now he commandeth all men 
to believe. 

We find another allusion to this important subject 
in Luke 1 3 : 2-6, which is not recorded by Matthew 
or Mark : " Suppose ye that these Galileans were 
sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered 
these things ? I tell you nay ; but except ye repent, 
ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon 
whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think 
ye that they were sinners above all men who dwelt 
in Jerusalem ? I tell you nay ; but except ye repent, 
ye shall all likewise perish." This evidently does 
not mean that all who would not repent should die 
violent deaths ; for they did not all thus die. Nor 
does it mean that they all should die natural deaths ; 
for that they would die, even did they repent. The 
righteous and the wicked alike pass this ordeal. The 
term perish refers to another event ; a scene beyond 
the present ; that after they have misimproved this 
probationary state, and not having availed themselves 
of the benefit of the atonement, they should fall into 
the second death, from which they shall have no 
resurrection. With a fair construction, this passage 
also teaches the wicked will finally be lost, will perish, 
be destroyed, and are not immortal. Having lost their 
virtue,having become hardened and incorrigible,worth- 
less for any good, they are cast forth by their Crea- 
tor, and fulfill the prophecy, " They shall be ashes un- 



I38 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

der the righteous' feet." Fearful doom ; yet it mani- 
fests wisdom, mercy, and justice. 

We now come to the account of the rich man and 
Lazarus. It matters not whether we consider this as 
a parable or not. Its import is the same. It can 
not be considered as teaching the ultimate destiny 
of our race, for the whole scene was acted eighteen 
hundred years ago. It is evidently designed to teach, 
first, the Sadducees, that there was to be a future 
retribution. Second, that this present life was a pro- 
bationary life, and that in it our character was formed 
which moulded our destiny. Third, that this destiny 
does not depend upon our being the descendants of 
Abraham ; nor did it depend upon affluence or in- 
fluence ; but it did depend upon the moral conduct 
and character. Fourth, that after death there was no 
change of character ; " That as a tree falls so it would 
lie ;" " That there was no wisdom or device in the 
grave whither we were going." Fifth, that there would 
be in the judgment a final and eternal separation of 
the righteous from the wicked. The expression, "And 
in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment," does 
not represent the final doom of the sinner ; or, if it 
does, it can only be by the way of anticipation ; for 
this was while his brethren were living in this world, 
and the Bible expressly declares that the wicked do 
not enter upon their final doom until after the resur- 
rection and judgment. Nor could this hell represent 
the fires of the last day unto which this present 
heaven and earth are reserved for purification ; and 
which will bring about the perdition of the ungodly ; 
for in this will the rich man, together with all the 



LUKE. 139 

enemies of God, have to receive their perdition or 
utter destruction. Hence we must conclude that this 
account of the rich man and Lazarus was not intend- 
ed to teach the final destiny of man. And I would 
not have noticed it, had it not been for the fact that 
it had been so freely quoted for that purpose. This, 
I think, the candid reader will consider the true exe- 
gesis of the scripture. 

Luke records another parable of our Lord which 
touches upon this subject, 19:1 1-28. It is so lengthy 
I will transcribe only so much of it as is necessary. 
" Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou" 
wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere 
'man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping 
that I did not sow : wherefore then gavest not thou 
my money into the bank, that at my coming I might 
have required mine own with usury ? And he said 
unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, 
and give to him that hath ten pounds. (And they 
say unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.) For I say 
unto you, that unto every one which hath shall be 
given ; and from him that hath not, even that he 
hath shall be taken away from him. But those mine 
enemies, which would not that I should reign over 
them, bring hither, and slay them before me." This 
teaches us plain as any parable can teach that the im- 
penitent and rebellious after the judgment lose their 
lives, their conscious being. What term can be used 
to express loss of life if this does not ? — " And slay 
them before me." When such a declaration comes 
directly from the mouth of our Saviour, what man 
can, without the greatest effrontery, declare that after 



140 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

the judgment the wicked will not die ? they are im- 
mortal ? Did the devil say more to Eve ? Nay, did 
he not say the "same thing, " Thou shalt not surely 
die" — thou shalt be immortal? How dare men teach, 
for the doctrine of God, the doctrine of the devil ? 
Every one will find in the judgment they had no ex- 
cuse for doing so ; that there was not a passage in 
God's word that justified it. This lesson had better 
be learned in time than at the judgment. 

Again, listen to the world which fell from the lips 
of our Saviour, as recorded Luke 20 : 17, 18 : " What 
is this, then, that is written, The stone which the 
builders rejected, the same is become the head of the 
corner ? Whosoever shall fall upon this stone, shall 
be broken ; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will 
grind him to powder." What expression can be 
more beautifully sublime and yet so awfully terrible ? 
Christ is represented as a rock — a stone — a durable 
foundation for man's anxious hopes and anticipations. 
The man who leans or falls prostrate upon this rock 
is broken, feels his guilt, is melted into contrition, 
believes in the security of the foundation, is saved. 
Beauty and sublimity complete ! But oh ! the terrific 
catastrophe which will befall incorrigible humanity. 
It will grind him to powder ! What expression could 
convey the idea of extinction of life more clearly and 
positively ? Would it not be the strangest thing in 
the world, if the doctrine of the immortality of the 
sinner was true, that every time our Saviour allud- 
ed to the destiny of the wicked, the phraseology in 
each allusion, with a fair and legitimate construction, 
should be so fatal to the doctrine ? " Be not de- 



LUKE. 141 

ceived : God is not mocked." The Saviour under- 
stood language as well as the learned of this day. 
He says, " Heaven and earth shall pass away ; but 
my word shall not pass away." " They shall be 
ground to powder." These are Christ's words, and 
will remain true " when the heavens shall be rolled 
together as a scroll, and the earth shall melt with 
fervent heat." 

Our Saviour's answer to the Sadducees, found in 
Luke 20 : 35-39, is very remarkable : " But they 
which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that 
world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither 
marry nor are given in marriage, neither can they 
die any more ; for they are equal unto the angels, 
and are the children of God, being the children of the 
resurrection. Now that the dead are raised, even 
Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord 
the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the 
God of Jacob : for he is not the God of the dead, but 
of the living ; for all live unto him." " But they 
which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that 
world." All who are resurrected shall not obtain 
that world ; but only they who are worthy. What 
world ? For there seems from this, there is but one 
world for man to go to. " This" (the present) " world 
is not worthy" of you Christians, says the Saviour. 
Why ? Because it is a sinful world, cursed by God, 
the home of the sinner. The world to which Christ 
here alludes is the world to come, or this world after 
it is renovated or purified by the fires of the last day 
and the perdition of ungodly men, or in which ungod- 
ly men will find perdition or destruction. Then ap- 



142 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

pear " the new heavens and the new earth, in which 
dwelleth righteousness." Fit home for those who 
shall be accounted worthy, having been washed 
from their sins in the blood of the Lamb ! " They 
which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that 
world, and the resurrection." Not a resurrection, 
but " the" (the first) " resurrection — neither marry 
nor are given in marriage, neither can they die any 
more." Why can not they die ? Because they are 
cleansed from sin, which alone could make them 
corruptible. " They are equal" (that is, like) " unto 
the angels, and are the children of God, being the 
children of the" (first) " resurrection." " For he is 
not the God of the dead," (who have gone into the 
second death, from which there is no awakening,) 
" but of the living," (those who enjoy the resurrected 
life not forfeited ;) " for all live unto him." At this 
time there are none but those who live unto God. 
The universe is cleansed from sin and the sinner. 
The wicked are destroyed ; the righteous saved. 
The wicked are dead, in the second death ; the 
righteous live in the resurrected life. " All " (who 
are alive) " live unto God." What a glorious truth ! 
Thank God! "the meek shall" now "inherit the 
earth." Then where are the wicked ? Nowhere. 
" They are burned up." " They are" (says the pro- 
phet) " as though they had not been." 2 Peter 3 : 7 : 
" But the heavens and the earth which are now, by 
the same word are kept -in store, reserved unto the 
fire against the day of judgment, and perdition of 
ungodly men." Malachi 4:1:" For, behold, the 
day cometh that shall burn as an oven : and all the 



LUKE. 143 

proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble : 
and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith 
the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither 
root nor branch." How is it possible for language to 
convey the utter loss of life and being to the wicked 
in plainer terms ? 

I believe we have now quoted every passage in 
which our Saviour alludes to the destiny of the 
wicked, as they are recorded in the gospels of Mat- 
thew, Mark, and Luke. In my humble opinion, in 
every reference, the language clearly, positively, and 
unequivocally represents the wicked not immortal. 
We will now refer to each allusion of our Saviour to 
this subject in the gospel of St. John. 



144 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 



John 3 : 36 : " He that believeth on the Son hath 
everlasting life : he that believeth not on the Son shaH 
not see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on him." 
It does not say, He that believeth on the Son hath 
the natural or the probationary life ; for this he must 
have in order to believe, and would have whether he 
believed or disbelieved ; but he that believeth on the 
Son hath a justified life, which, if he retains through 
probation, he will receive the resurrected life which 
is justified by Christ, and not being forfeited, will be 
illimitable and eternal : but he that believeth not, 
shall not see life — that is, not see or have a justified, 
resurrected life ; but it having been forfeited by un- 
belief and sin, will sink into the second death ; and 
as there is no more sacrifice for sin, it must inevitably 
be eternal. Hence, we see " the wrath of God abideth 
on him" — that is, eternally ; for there is no more favor 
from God that will bring about another resurrection. 
With this construction how forcible, how consistent, 
how philosophical is this scripture ! Men may evade 
such clear teachings of the all-wise Being, but they 
will not be able to escape his denunciation and his 
wrath. Permit me to refer the advocate for the im- 
mortality of the finally impenitent to Rev. 22 : 18, 19 : 
" For I testify to every man that heareth the words 
of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add 
unto these things, God shall add unto him the 
plagues that are written in this book ; and if any 
man shall take away from the words of the book of 
this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of 



JOHN. 145 

the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from 
the things which are written in this book." 

Again, John 5 : 28, 29 : " Marvel not at this, for 
the hour is coming in the which all that are in the 
graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth : 
they that have done good, unto the resurrection of 
life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrec- 
tion of damnation," or condemnation. To under- 
stand what this damnation is, we need to read but 
one quotation. Rev. 20: 12-14: "And I saw the 
dead, small and great, stand before God ; and the 
books were opened : and another book was opened, 
which is the book of life : and the dead were judged 
out of those things which were written in the books, 
according to their works. And the sea gave up the 
dead which were in it ; and death and hell delivered 
up the dead which were in them : and they were 
judged, every man according to their works ; and 
death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This 
is the second death. And whosoever was not found 
written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of 
fire." With these scriptures before us, who can 
believe in the immortality of the sinner ? By dis- 
obedience the first death was incurred, which would 
have been eternal had it not have been for the death of 
Christ ; so sin causes the forfeiture of the purchased 
or resurrected life, which will sink into the second 
death, and which will prove eternal, because there is 
no redemption therefrom. If this is not truth, I con- 
fess I can not tell where truth can be found. If this 
is not truth, much, if not the whole of the Bible, 
becomes a jargon. 



I46 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

Again, John 6: 53 : "Then Jesus said unto them, 
Verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat of the 
flesh of the Son of God, and drink his blood, ye have 
no life in you" — Christ was speaking to those then 
living and who had advanced into the years of ac- 
countability. They had been guilty of individual 
sins, and had thus forfeited the purchased and 
resurrected life ; consequently, they could have no 
hope of an eternal life except they eat the flesh 
and drank the blood of the Son of God, and thus 
have the forfeiture of their resurrected life canceled, 
or, in other words, be reinstated in the purchased 
life through faith in the atonement. Our Saviour 
did not mean they had no animation, or natural, 
or probationary life in them. He simply meant they, 
having sinned against the purchased life, and not 
having repented and trusted in the atonement, were 
not entitled to a perpetual or eternal life. They did 
not have it, nor could they have it, except through 
the sacrifice of the Son of God. Thus you see this, 
another positive statement that the wicked are not 
immortal. 

The same thing is reiterated for emphasis in 54th 
verse, " Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my 
blood hath eternal life. Except you eat the flesh of 
the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life 
in you." That is, Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh 
my blood, after the forfeiture of the purchased life, 
shall be restored to it ; but, after the forfeiture of the 
resurrected life, it can not be regained but by eating 
the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking his blood. 
If this is the true exegesis, and it can be explained 
in no other way, the wicked can not be immortal. 



JOHN. 147 

John 6 : 57, 58, "As the living Father hath sent 
me, and I live by the Father : so he that eateth me 
shall live by me. This is that bread which came 
down from heaven ; not as your fathers did eat 
manna, and are dead ; he that eateth of this bread 
shall live forever." " Shall live forever," not in the 
natural or this probationary state, but in the resur- 
rected life. So, on the other hand, he that eateth 
not this bread shall not live forever in the resur- 
rected life, but will sink into the second death. 
Here is another expression which deserves atten- 
tion : Christ says, " As the living Father," or the 
Father possessed of a conscious being, " hath sent 
me, so I live," or have a conscious being, " by " (or 
with) " my Father," " so he that eateth me shall 
live," or have a conscious being " by me." Hence, 
God, Christ, and fhe redeemed have a similar life or 
conscious being, which those who will not eat of the 
bread which cometh down from heaven have not, 
and can not have. In other words, they will have no 
conscious being after the fires of the judgment. Can 
any one fail to see that the Saviour's teachings on 
this subject are uniform? "Thou shalt surely die." 
Thou art not immortal. 

John 8 : 24, " I said therefore unto you, that ye 
shall die in your sins ; for if ye believe not that I am 
he, ye shall die in your sins." Is not the teaching 
here clear and explicit ? — that if they die a natural 
death, in consequence of a disobedience while they 
were yet in the loins of Adam, and from which the 
atonement could not deliver them ; if they then die 
in sins committed by themselves willfully and delib- 



14 8 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

erately, without the benefit of the atonement, they 
must die the second death, and lose forever the 
benefit of a resurrection which Christ purchased 
for them ? If the first death would have been 
eternal without the atonement, will not the second 
death also be eternal, when there is no atonement ? 
Then how can the finally impenitent be considered 
immortal ? 

John 8 : 34, 35 : " Whosoever committeth sin is 
the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in 
the house forever, but the son abideth ever." It is 
equally evident from this text that the wicked are 
not immortal, whether we consider the house here 
spoken of as the body, the house of the soul, or the 
world as the habitation of man. The latter, I sup- 
pose, is intended. Hence the sinner, who is the ser- 
vant of sin, will abide here no longer than while the 
prince of evil reigns. But when this ceases, by the 
destruction of the prince and his works, and righte- 
ousness prevails in the earth, under the reign of its 
rightful sovereign, the Son, " the meek shall abide 
in or inherit the earth" forever. If the wicked abide 
not on the earth forever, where will they abide ? No- 
where. The Bible everywhere teaches that after the 
resurrection and judgment, there is no receptacle for 
them but the lake of fire, which is to purify the 
earth by burning up the works of the devil, which 
are transgressors. The declaration is, The servant 
of sin shall not abide forever, but the Son, or the 
righteous, will abide forever. Our Saviour is uni- 
form in his teachings. 

Again, John 8:51: " Verily, verily I say unto you, 



JOHN. 149 

If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." 
Our Saviour does not, in this passage, teach that, if a 
man keep his sayings, he shall not pass through the 
ordeal of temporal death ; for God said to Adam, in 
the event of disobedience, " Thou shalt surely die ;" 
"dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." 
What he said to Adam he said to his posterity. Then 
how shall we understand him ? Surely in the way 
that will not involve the Author of veracity in con- 
tradiction. As if he had said, Man has forfeited 
his life by sin, which forfeiture he must pay ; but I 
have purchased him a resurrected life, by giving 
my own for it. " Verily I say unto you," that a man 
thus redeemed, " if he keep my sayings," does not sin 
against or forfeit the purchased, resurrected life, 
" shall not see death" — the death of the resurrected 
life, the second death. But, in the event of a forfeit- 
ure of this purchased life, any one that confesses is 
truly penitent for the sin or sins which produced this 
forfeiture, and believes and trusts in me as a sufficient 
Saviour, shall be absolved from such forfeiture, and 
shall enjoy the resurrected life forever. This is the 
true construction of this declaration of our Lord. 
How simple ! how beautiful ! how consolatory ! Oh ! 
how does man's fondest hope burst from the deepest 
gloom, when the Sun of glory rises from the tomb ! m 
Thus we see the immortality of the righteous and the 
loss of being to the finally impenitent equally assured. 
John 15 : 6 : " If a man abide not in me, he is cast 
forth as a branch, and is withered ; and men gather 
them, and cast them into the fire, and they are 
burned." Does the Saviour mean what he says? 



150 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

Dare any one say, he says what he does not mean ? 
When a branch is withered and cast into the fire and 
is burned, what do we understand is the result ? Do 

* 

we not understand it to be burned up — consumed ? 
Does not Christ say, " If a man abide not in me," he 
is cast off, is withered, is burned ? burned up — con- 
sumed ? Can any one infer, from this statement of 
our Lord, that the man who does not abide in him is 
immortal ? How absurd ! Absurd as it is, there is 
not an allusion in the Scriptures to the destiny of the 
wicked which does not make it equally preposterous. 
Can language convey the extinction of the enemies 
of God in a clearer or a more positive manner ? 

We have now produced the entire teachings of our 
Saviour on the destiny of the finally impenitent, as they 
are recorded in the gospels ; and I am confident, in 
my opinion, that it is impossible, with a fair construc- 
tion of the language, to make any one or all of these 
allusions to this subject convey the doctrine of the 
immortality of the unregenerate. On the contrary, I 
am sure that every candid reader of these references 
will concede that the testimony of our Saviour is uni- 
form, and that it teaches us, plainly as language can 
do it, the destruction or extinction of the incorrigible. 
The Bible teaching is, that man is not naturally im- 
mortal ; can not be until after the judgment ; and 
then can only be through the merits of Christ. The 
doctrine of the immortality of the sinner was never 
gleaned from God's word. It is a relic of heathen- 
ism. The heathen have ever had a traditionary idea 
of immortality ; but a just understanding of this grand 
sentiment has been lost with them, the same as a just 



JOHN. 151 

idea of the Deity has been. They not being able to 
discriminate between the righteous and the unright- 
eous, have associated the sentiment with every mem- 
ber of the human family. So, having a traditionary 
idea of God, and having lost all just ideas of his being 
and character, they have multiplied the number to 
suit their superstitions. 



152 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 



Having reviewed the gospels, and noted each allu- 
sion to the destiny of the sinner, we will proceed to 
the perusal of the Acts of the Apostles, and notice 
their teachings on this subject. 

The first allusion, in the Acts of the Apostles, to 
this subject, may be found in Acts 3 : 22, 23 : "For 
Moses truly said unto the fathers, A Prophet shall 
the Lord your God raise up unto you of your breth- 
ren, like unto me ; him shall ye hear in all things, 
whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come 
to pass that every soul which will not hear that Pro- 
phet, shall be destroyed from among the people." 
The Prophet can not be understood to mean that each 
one of the Jews, who should refuse to hear the com- 
ing Prophet, should be destroyed from among the 
Jews in time. If so, it was perfectly obsolete ; for 
they rather sought to slay those who did believe in 
him. It can have no other construction than this, 
that it referred to the final scene, or judgment. At 
this time whoever was not found in Christ, or did not 
confide in him, should be destroyed from among the 
people of God. In other words, there should be a 
complete separation between those who loved God 
and those who do not. The one should be accepted 
of God, and the other should be destroyed by God. 
Thus we see the non-immortality of those who should 
reject the Prophet whom God should raise up from 
among the Israelitish people, was published in the 
first announcements of a coming Saviour. 



ACTS. 153 

The second allusion to this question is found in 
Acts 8 : 20 : " But Peter said, Thy money perish with 
thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God 
may be purchased with money." That an inanimate 
substance may perish, in the sense of utter destruc- 
tion, there can be no question. Is not Peter's denun- 
ciation against Simon, as well as his money ? Is it 
not equally against both ? Was this denunciation 
prompted by inspiration? If so, would not the un- 
avoidable inference be that Simon could perish for 
his blasphemy ? Then how could he be considered 
immortal ? It matters nothing to say Simon repent- 
ed, and did not receive the punishment. The denun- 
ciation was against the sacrilege, and if he avoided 
the punishment by repentance and forgiveness, it is 
no proof he would not have perished if he had not 
repented. The denunciation was conditional ; so was 
his life. Which, think you, the greater sin — to think 
he could purchase this power for a consideration, or 
to think the all-wise and just God would keep mil- 
lions of his intelligent creatures in endless torture ? 
Which calls for the greater sorrow and genuine re- 
pentance ? I would as much dread to be guilty of the 
one as the other. 

The next and, I think, the only other allusion to 
the destiny of the ungodly in Acts, is found in 13 146: 
" Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It 
was necessary that the word of God should first have 
been spoken to you ; but seeing you put it from you, 
and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo ! 
we turn to the Gentiles." The apostle does not say,, 
nor in the remotest degree intimate, that these Jews 



154 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

judged themselves unworthy of an everlasting life in 
happiness, or an everlasting life in misery ; but "un- 
worthy of everlasting life," or conscious being illimi- 
table in duration. If they were adjudged unworthy 
of everlasting life, were they not adjudged worthy of 
a life not everlasting, and that would terminate ? If 
so, does not the Apostle Paul affirm that these Jews 
considered themselves not immortal ? I ask my op- 
ponents, you being judges, How can you still con- 
sistently aver the wicked are immortal ? When you 
say this, do you not affirm that Paul and He by whom 
he was inspired are untruthful ? Tenible thought ! 
I tremble even to write what you continually affirm. 
What good can accrue in a persistency to publish 
such a theory, so dishonorable to your Maker, so en- 
couraging to the rebellious to blaspheme, so lauding 
to the devil in his falsehood ? Desist, I beseech you ; 
for God is jealous of his honor. If the prostration of 
the honest Roman Catholic before the crucifix and 
the image of the Virgin Mary brands him as an idol- 
ater, I ask you, my opponents, in the name of Him 
who says he will not hold him guiltless who takes 
his name in vain, of what name are you worthy, who 
affirm and glory in teaching that the Almighty Sove- 
reign of the universe will, for the sins of this mortal 
life, hold a majority of the human family in tortures 
indescribable and inconceivable in a lake of fire eter- 
nally ? Have you the slightest conception of the 
torment ? Have you the slightest conception of its 
duration ? Eternally ! Man has not been on the 
earth six thousand years. When six thousand years 
more have elapsed after the judgment, and six thou- 



ACTS. 155 

sand millions of ages more have passed, and millions 
of millions of millions of ages more have rolled their 
ceaseless round, eternity has scarce commenced its 
ceaseless flow. The sinner has scarcely commenced 
his misery ; and when his horrid shrieks and hideous 
groans for myriads and myriads of ages more make 
hell hideous with their reverberations through the 
abyss of woe, think you the lost after this experience 
could look up to the throne and shriek out in despair, 
Holy art thou, and righteous in all thy ways, Lord 
God Almighty ! In mercy thou doest all. O ye 
who thus charge the high and holy One ! blush for 
shame. Thank God for your stupidity that you may 
not be responsible. Else say to his Satanic majesty, 
Stand back ! Give place to one more chivalric in 
crime. You said to Eve, " Thou shalt not surely 
die ;" but I say to the great majority of her sons and 
daughters, thou shalt be immortal in misery ! I have 
reached the goal. The darkest jet of evil sparkles in my 
crown. I grasp the chief sceptre of rebellion. Stand 
back, and yield obedience to my superior claims ! 
Words can not convey my indignation for such a 
theme. It is the very climax of blasphemy. It is 
the monster mother of all sin and error. It is the 
chief deception from the prince of evil. It is the 
great moral simoom which desolates this fair heritage 
of man. 



I56 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 



We will now turn our attention to the review of 
Paul's letter to the Romans. I think his teaching on 
this subject will not be found doubtful or ambiguous. 
It can not be that he will proclaim a different destiny 
for the enemies of God than was revealed by Moses, 
the great law-giver, and Jesus, the great Saviour. 
His first mention of this subject is found Rom. 1 : 28- 
32 : " And even as they did not like to retain God in 
their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate 
mind, to do those things which are not convenient ; 
being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, 
wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness ; full of envy, 
murder, debate, deceit, malignity ; whisperers, back- 
biters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, in- 
ventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without 
understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural 
affection, implacable, unmerciful : who knowing the 
judgment of God, that they which commit such 
things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but 
have pleasure in them that do them." It can not be 
understood that the apostle meant in this description 
of a degenerate world that they all were worthy of 
temporal death according to the Roman code. He, 
in general, was not speaking of traits, characters, and 
actions which were even amenable to the Roman law. 
His meaning was that these abominable traits of dis- 
position and character made them worthy, not of the 
first, but of the second death. Men were amenable 
to the first or temporal death, by virtue of Adam's 



ROMANS. 157 

sin ; and according to the pledge of his Maker, man 
could not avoid this death, even by the introduction 
of a mediator. The fiat was, " In the day thou sin- 
neth, dying, thou shalt surely die." That is, thou 
shalt become corruptible, and this corruption or decay 
shall eventuate in the death of your entire being. 
Without an antidote, this death, according to the 
veracity of God, must inevitably have been eternal. 
The incarnation and death of Christ then was not to 
save man from the death promised, but that this 
death should not be eternal. Hence man has, by vir- 
tue of the death and resurrection of the Son of God, 
a resurrection from the promised death to a life which 
will be eternal, if not again forfeited by sin. If man 
in his purchased probation for immortality forfeits the 
purchased resurrected life by individual sin, and this 
forfeiture is not canceled through repentance and 
faith in the atonement, this resurrected life must die ; 
and " there being no more sacrifice for sin," this death 
must be eternal. Then I, in all humility and earnest- 
ness, ask, Is not this doctrine of the devil, "Thou 
shalt not surely die," thou art immortal, certainly and 
absolutely false ? If man's first probationary life in 
obedience for immortality was forfeited and lost 
through disobedience, shall not the second or pur- 
chased probationary life be forfeited and lost by sin ? 
Certainly. If the first forfeiture and death or loss of 
conscious being was the result of disobedience, will 
there not be death or loss of conscious being by the 
forfeiture of the resurrected life by sin ? Most as- 
suredly. Then what ground can there be for the 
doctrine of an everlasting life for the sinner ? None. 



I58 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

Romans 2 : 4, 5 : " Or despiseth thou the riches 
of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering ; 
not knowing the goodness of God leadeth thee to re- 
pentance ? But after thy hardness and impenitent 
heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the 
day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judg- 
ment of God." What a terrible thought ! " Treasur- 
est up the wrath of God for the day of wrath, when 
the judgment of God" — which is death, as was seen 
in the former reference — shall be revealed. Yet those 
who advocate the immortality of the sinner, sneer at 
this and call it no punishment ; and regard it as a 
scene most pleasurable and desirable to the impeni- 
tent. Who that reveres the attributes of God can 
thus trifle with his awful judgments ? Think of it, ye 
flippant ones, so bereft of sympathy, so intent upon 
an eternal howl of misery for the erring ; who are 
not content with the wrath of an Almighty God 
which would bring complete extinction, but would 
have the hapless sinner in torture receive these thun- 
derbolts throughout eternity. Contemplate the ire, 
the accumulated wrath of an indignant, incensed 
God, transfixing a human soul, to hurl it out of be- 
ing, dashing it forever from all the glories of the 
universe. Are you so insensible to fear, so lost to 
all appreciation of the terribleness of divine judg- 
ments, that you must regard them as eternal, in order 
that you may exercise a reverential awe ? Are you 
not humbled with the thought that it is necessary to 
pervert God's word, impugn his" veracity, ignore his 
justice, annihilate his mercy, and turn his everlasting 
love into a mixture of hate, in order to sustain his 



ROMANS. 159 

Satanic majesty's creed, and indulge your insatiate 
appetite for eternal suffering and delectable fondness 
for revenge and woe. Shame on such a perversity .of 
nature. If God's omnipotent power could bring a 
universe from naught, his accumulated wrath can 
destroy a corruptible creature. He says, " The soul 
that sinneth, it shall die." If God's justice is satis- 
fied, his law honored, his government sustained by 
the extinction of his enemies, why should learned 
and intelligent men insist upon another destiny which 
no part of the Scriptures teaches, and which God re- 
peatedly and in the most positive manner disavows ? 

Sixth to ninth verses of the same chapter : " Who 
will render to every man according to his deeds. To 
them who by patient continuance in well-doing, seek 
for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life : 
but unto them who are contentious and do not obey 
the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, 
wrath, tribulation, and anguish upon every soul of 
man that doeth evil." What can be plainer ? " God 
will give eternal life," a life unending, illimitable in 
duration — (to whom?) — "To them who, by patient 
continuance in well-doing, seek for glory and honor 
and immortality." The counterpart then is true — God 
will not give eternal life to those who will not seek 
for glory, honor, and immortality ; but to every one 
who doeth evil he will give anguish, wrath, and indig- 
nation. 

Again, what can be more absurd than to suppose 
God would command us to seek for immortality if 
we were naturally immortal, and could not be dis- 
possessed of it by any' power, human or divine. If 



l60 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

man is, as such theorists affirm and labor hard to 
prove, immaterial, therefore indestructible, and there- 
fore immortal, why should he be required to seek for 
immortality ? Would not this announcement of the 
apostle, that God would give everlasting life to those 
who seek it, be supremely ridiculous, if God gave it 
to every man, whether he sought it or not. But from 
the audacity of ignorance or prejudice, we hear men 
say it is a happy immortality we are to seek, that we 
may avoid a miserable immortality. On what autho- 
rity, I ask, is this declaration made ? I most confi- 
dently affirm that God has not given such authority. 
It can not be found in his word. The phrase happy 
immortality, or happy everlasting life, is not to be 
found in the Bible. It is derogatory to the divine 
Being to suppose that he will give eternal conscious 
being to any creature without its being happy. What ! 
God create sin ? create unhappiness ? Who dare af- 
firm it ? Do not you, who say the wicked live eter- 
nally in misery, sin, and blasphemy after probation 
ceases ? Is there not a necessity for the sinner to 
sin after probation ceases, when all wholesome re- 
straint is withheld, and there remains no possibility 
to reform ? Do not the Scriptures teach, " The car- 
nal mind is at enmity to God, is not subject to his 
law, neither indeed can be." If this is the case 
when the enmity may be overcome by the blood of 
the Lamb, is it not emphatically true when there is 
no more sacrifice for sin ? If the sinner's conscious 
being is indefinitely protracted after probation ceases, 
and this protracted existence is upheld each succes- 
sive moment by God's continued acts of omnipotence,. 



ROMANS. l6l 

does not God, by the exercise of his omnipotence, 
create the misery, malice, blasphemy, and sin which 
necessarily results from man's necessary being, upheld 
by almighty power ? Certainly. Then will men con- 
tinue their efforts to make God the author of misery 
and sin ? Which truth can not be evaded, if the wick- 
ed have a continued conscious being when there re- 
mains no possibility of obtaining a happier or more 
virtuous existence, and this wicked, miserable, blas- 
phemous being is rendered necessary by an almighty 
fiat. 

Why should God protract the being of the wicked 
after probation ceases ? Will it contribute to his 
glory ? From it can there be any salutary influence 
upon the righteous ? Would they not fall into non- 
entity, were it not for God's continued acts of omni- 
potence ? If God is displeased with sin and can not 
look upon it but with abhorrence, why should he 
protract it ? Is it to be believed that he will act 
contrary to his nature ? Absurd ! The all-wise God 
will not exert his almighty power to perpetuate an 
evil which he abominates. He will not act so incon- 
sistent with himself. According to his own words, 
u A house divided against itself can not stand." If 
there is truth in this declaration of the prophet, " The 
wicked shall be as though they had not been," is there 
not an absolute necessity for the divine Being not 
to protract the conscious existence of the wicked be- 
yond probation. Can any one, having common sense 
and common honesty, believe and declare that God 
will exert his unlimited power forever to perpetuate 
an evil, to rid the world of which he gave his Son to 



l62 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

die ? Preposterous blasphemy ! I have no patience 
with the theory. From whatever stand-point you view 
it, its absurdity and its fallacy are apparent. 

Permit me to refer the reader again to man's 
origin. When man was constituted a living being, 
and God had pledged to him the death of this living 
being in case he eat of the forbidden fruit, if man 
became disobedient, was there not an absolute neces- 
sity and certainty for man not to be immortal, pro- 
vided there should be no Saviour offered or given ? 
If man, sinning, could not be immortal without a 
Saviour given, can he now be immortal without a 
Saviour accepted ? Again, if man in his formation 
was constituted only a living being, and not an im- 
mortal being while innocent, is it consistent to believe 
that God afterward constituted him immortal in his 
sin and rebellion ? Preposterous ! How the good, 
the devotional, the loving, could have been led to 
adopt and believe the theory, " Thou shalt not surely 
die," is mysterious. Yet it is not more mysterious 
than that almost the entire world should lose a 
just conception of the true God. If there was an 
enemy lurking in the arbors of Paradise, we should 
suspect legions in this estranged world. 

Verses 12 and 16; they should be read in con- 
nection : " For as many as have sinned without law, 
shall also perish without law ; and as many as have 
sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law, in that 
day when God shall judge the secrets of men, by 
Jesus Christ, according to my Gospel." How the 
popular theory of the wicked's immortality could be 
shown to be false more clearly is not easy to be im- 



ROMANS. 163 

agined. " As many as have sinned without law, 
shall perish without law ; and as many as have 
sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law." 
What would that judgment be ? Death. When ? 
At the judgment by Jesus Christ. If this perishing 
and death occurs after the judgment, where is the 
revelation that there will be a recovery from them ? 
Does not the revelator say that after the judgment, 
death, and hell, and all whose names were not writ- 
ten in the book of life, were cast into the lake of fire, 
which is the second death ? Will not every one of 
my opponents acknowledge that there is not the 
least mention of these, their condition, or their 
destiny, after this in God's word ? This is after the 
judgment, and is the last that is revealed about the 
lost. Thus it appears that all sinners of every grade, 
with or without law, will be judged in the last day, 
and in that same day will perish. No unsophisticated 
mind will fail to apprehend this, nor will such a mind 
fail to understand the true import of the term perish. 
When an individual dies for want of food, we say he 
perishes from hunger. When a man is drowned, we 
say he perishes in the water. When a man falls into 
the fire and burns up, we say he perished in the flames. 
Here we have a plain, just, and common meaning of 
the word perish. Why should we give it another 
meaning in this scripture ? We should not ; and 
certainly will not, unless it be to sustain a favorite 
theory. Here is where men delude themselves. 
They too often make the sentiment bend to the 
theory, and not the theory to the sentiment. With 
a just conception and honest use of the word perish 



164 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

in this quotation, we inevitably arrive at the positive 
fallacy of the doctrine of the immortality of the finally 
impenitent. 

I think I can truthfully say I have no favorite theory 
for which I would be willing, or could be induced, to 
wrest the word of God from its legitimate meaning 
to sustain. If there is one thing I pride myself upon 
beyond any other, it is, that I do not fear to take what 
I clearly find in God's word as true. In doing so, I 
find the Scriptures consistent. I find them a unit. 
If I were a slave to my earlier and less informed 
views, if I felt myself so wise that God could not 
teach me out of his precious word, I should* to-day 
find myself a devotee to some baleful errors from 
which, thank God, I am now free ; and I would, in 
my closer, more critical, and more devotional reading, 
find the blessed Bible a labyrinth — yes, a jargon. But 
submitting myself to the teachings of God's word 
and spirit, I find myself enlightened. I can now 
look up and view my Maker, a righteous sovereign ; 
appreciate his mercy, that endureth forever ; yield to 
a wisdom infinite and unerring ; and be imbued 
with that love which is illimitable. Finding these 
attributes all harmonizing, and in harmony with 
every other divine attribute, I find a beautiful and 
sublime symmetry in the word of life, and a pleasing 
agreement of the divine word with its Author. I 
am no longer afflicted and troubled with this irrecon- 
cilable inconsistency — infinite love and mercy being 
complacent with unending and indescribable misery. 

Romans 4 : 17 : "If any man defile the temple of 
God, him shall God destroy ; for the temple of God 



ROMANS. I65 

is holy, which temple ye are." Should men allow the 
natural, legitimate use of terms in the Scriptures as 
in other writings, there could be no difference of 
opinion on this subject. If St. Paul wished (as he 
did) to convey the idea that man was not immortal 
that the wicked in the end would lose their entire 
being, how could he express it in terms more clear 
and positive than in the passage above quoted ? I 
know there are some who as much as affirm the apos- 
tle did not mean what he said ; that he meant to say 
God would destroy their happiness. But this is no 
less blasphemous than it is untrue. The idea that the 
great apostle to the Gentiles, and, at the same time, 
inspired of God, did not know how to express his 
sentiments, but must be by prejudiced men corrected ! 
With such unbridled license, what may not the Scrip- 
tures be made to teach ? Notwithstanding the opinion 
of the would-be wise, the apostle says, He that denleth 
the temple of God, whose temple ye are, God will de- 
stroy. It is the person, the being who commits this 
sacrilegious act that will be destroyed. What is more 
reasonable, if God condescends to allow his spirit to 
dwell in mortal bodies, than that they should be kept 
pure. If" made impure, and thus rendered unfit for 
the purpose for which they were created, what is 
more rational and befitting than that God should de- 
stroy them ? Why should it be thought incumbent 
that they should be preserved when, by their own 
desecration, they rendered themselves useless — yes, 
obnoxious ? This would accord with the wisdom of 
men ; why not much more so with the superior wisdom 
of God ? ' 



l66 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

With the uniform representation of man's mortality, 
nothing appears more astonishing than that this en- 
tire mass of evidence could be so distorted, twisted, 
and perverted as to convey, in any manner, the oppo- 
site idea. It must be at least conjectured the arch 
foe has had an active hand in it. When the apostle 
declares if a man defile the temple of God, which is 
the human body, God will destroy, how can any rea- 
sonable, conscientious man affirm Paul meant God 
would destroy man's happiness ? Which, if Paul had 
said, or intended to say, he could easily have been 
proven a false teacher. If it is referred to this world, 
it could not be true ; for the unscrupulous seem to 
secure a surplus of worldly enjoyment. If you refer 
it to the future world, it is equally untrue, and much 
more blasphemous. Where in all God's revelation is 
it taught that God destroys human happiness ? un- 
less it be to suspend a smaller for a greater good. 
The whole tendency and design of the divine govern- 
ment is to promote and secure the greatest happiness 
to all his intelligent creatures. It is the basest libel 
on the character of the Supreme Being, to say that 
he will destroy the happiness of the finally impeni- 
tent. The sinner destroys his own'happiness. God 
says, " O Israel ! thou hast destroyed thyself." In 
the hearing of God's reiterated avowal, " The goodness 
and mercy of God endureth forever," howunbecoming^ 
how false, how sacrilegious to charge God with de- 
stroying man's happiness forever ! I tremble when I 
listen to expressions from the most learned, and pro- 
fessedly the most pious, so inimical to the justice, 
mercy, and love of our heavenly Father. I wish I 



ROMANS. IL'7 

might never hear them again from mortal, let alone 
from pious lips, that God intends to destroy forever 
the happiness of man. It is false. God affirms, by 
his servant Paul, that he will destroy the man who 
defiles his body, which was to be the temple of the 
Holy Ghost. Is it not one thing to destroy a man, 
and another thing to destroy simply his happiness ? 
Can not the latter be destroyed without the former ? 
Is not Paul sufficiently emphatic and unequivocal ? 
O men ! why will ye strive so hard " to turn the truth 
of God into a lie." I think, or at least hope, that 
when every allusion in the Scriptures to the destiny 
of men shall have been brought before the reader, 
separate from the many other subjects of revelation, 
each candid inquirer for truth will entertain the same 
opinion with myself on this important subject — that 
the wicked are not immortal. 

Again, the loss of happiness is not the penalty God 
affixes to transgression ; though that may be and is 
a consequence. If the loss of happiness is the only 
penalty for sin, God has not annexed any penalty to 
transgression ; for man being the sole author of his 
misery, and unhappiness being the penalty, man 
affixes his own penalty for transgression. This is 
contrary to Scripture ; for God expressly declares, 
" In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely 
die." Thus we see the declaration of men, that God 
will destroy the happiness of the sinner in the judg- 
ment, and not destroy the sinner, is utterly false. 
Paul meant what he said when he declared that God 
would destroy the man that would defile his body. 
Hence the doctrine that the wicked are immortal can 



1 68 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

not be true. If it were true the loss of happiness 
was the penalty for sin, then sin inevitably pro- 
duces its own antidote ; and man suffering the loss 
of happiness, which is the penalty, cancels the guilt 
of transgression. Thus the sinner becomes his own 
saviour from sin. This is the logical conclusion of 
the false assumption of the man who, to sustain the 
Satanic creed, the wicked are immortal, says Paul 
meant God would destroy man's happiness instead of 
destroying the man who should defile his body, the 
temple of God. 

No ; man brings upon himself the loss of happiness 
by disobedience ; but God affixes the penalty, which 
is death, the death of the resurrected life, the second 
death, or utter loss of being. It is not difficult to see 
whence comes the idea of universal salvation, or the 
final salvation of all men. If this was the only error 
flowing from this heresy, which has the misnomer 
orthodoxy, it would not be as bad as it is ; for it would 
not be difficult to show that every shade of error, 
from atheism down, has the same origin. 

Romans 5 : 12, 18, which should be read together: 
" Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the 
world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all 
men, for that all have sinned ; therefore as by the 
offense of one judgment came upon all men to con- 
demnation, even so by the righteousness of one the 
free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." 
This passage is noted, not because it has a special if 
any reference to the destiny of the wicked, since we 
have an antidote for original sin. It may be consid- 
ered to have exclusive reference to the sin of Adam, 



ROMANS. 169 

its consequence and its antidote. Antecedent to the 
first act of disobedience, which brought death into 
our world, Adam was holy, and, having no progeny 
at the time of his sin, incurred the penalty of death 
for himself and all his race. Without the promise of 
a sacrifice for sin, this death, unquestionably, would 
have been summarily meted out to the sinning pair ; 
and for aught of any thing we find in Scripture, there 
would have been no resurrection from it. For Adam 
had just received his life from God, and, by disobedi- 
ence, had forfeited it — not for a time, but forever. 
As Adam had no life, or animation, or conscious be- 
ing before he was constituted a living being, the 
death pledged for disobedience must necessarily in- 
volve the loss of this living or conscious being. It 
is manifestly absurd to entertain any other idea or 
construction. If this death pledged for man's origi- 
ginal sin must necessarily involve all the life, or con- 
scious being, which Adam received from his Maker 
at his formation, and this pledge of death gave not 
the slightest intimation of a resurrection, how could 
God, consistently with his veracity, give Adam eter- 
nal life in sin, when he had pledged him death in the 
contingency of disobedience ? The impossibility of 
man's immortality without a sacrifice for sin, must be 
apparent. In the forfeiture of life by this first act of 
disobedience, the entire human family was involved, 
as all were in the loins of their great progenitor. Had 
Adam then died, the whole human family would have 
perished in his death, and that forever, without a 
Saviour. Nor could Adam have entertained a hope 
of a revivification any more than the human race yet 



170 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

unborn. So death passed upon all men, for that all 
have sinned in their progenitor Adam. Thus we see 
Adam, and, consequently, his posterity, could not 
have had a conscious existence after disobedience, 
without a worthy sacrifice for his, Adam's, guilt. Life 
had been forfeited, and life must be regained by the 
shedding of blood, or the sacrifice of a redeeming life. 
So God mercifully interposes the death of his only- 
begotten Son between dying men and eternal death. 
And in the triumph of this substituted, sacrificed, and 
redeeming life over death in a glorious resurrection, 
man has the purchase and prestige of a future resur- 
rected life. Thus we see, as in Adam's sin the en- 
tire human family die, in Christ's sacrifice the entire 
human family live — are restored from a death which, 
but for this sacrifice, must have been eternal ; re- 
stored only so far as to prevent it from being eternal. 
This death, which, but for the interposition of a Sav- 
iour, had been eternal, now becomes a death for a 
time, until the resurrection. Man, thus redeemed to 
a resurrected life, must still pay the penalty to trans- 
gression, which is death — now made temporal through 
the atonement. Therefore it is manifestly evident 
that Adam and his posterity, being absolved from the 
guilt of original sin, after they shall have endured 
the modified penalty to said sin, will, through the re- 
surrection of Christ, be resurrected to a new life, 
which will be immortal, provided it shall not be again 
forfeited by further transgression, as it was first for- 
feited by Adam. Thus we see infants and others, 
who do not arrive at responsibility, and do not sin 
against the purchased life, have eternal life. 



ROMANS. 171 

Again, if any of the human family come to the age 
of individual responsibility, and again forfeit the pur- 
chased or resurrected life, through actual disobedience, 
and are not absolved from such forfeiture through 
the blood of atonement, such forfeiture of life must, 
of necessity, be eternal, for there is no other sacrifice 
for sin. But all those who come to the period of in- 
dividual accountability, and do make a forfeiture of 
their resurrected life by individual sin, and by repent- 
ance and faith in the atonement again retrieve the 
forfeited life through the blood of the covenant, will 
enjoy the resurrected life eternally ; will not be sub- 
jected to the power of the second death. As we see 
in the 16th verse : " For the judgment was by one to 
condemnation ; but the free gift is of many offenses 
unto justification." " For if by one man's offense 
death reigned by one, much more they which receive 
abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, 
shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." 

How can this theory, that the righteous are im- 
mortal at the resurrection through Christ, and the 
wicked are not immortal, having rejected the atone- 
ment, be set forth in a clearer and more satisfactory 
light than it is in the 21st verse of this same chap- 
ter ? " That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so 
might grace reign through righteousness, unto eter- 
nal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." It is to be 
kept in mind, that the death here spoken of does not 
mean the death which was the penalty of Adam's 
sin, but the second death, which is the death of the 
resurrected life, from which we have no promise of 
a revivification. While "grace," which saves from 



172 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

this death, " reigns through righteousness," obtained 
through the blood of atonement " unto everlasting 
life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." 

With this view of this subject, how significant are 
the words of the fourth verse of the sixth chapter : 
" Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into 
death ; that like as Christ was raised from the dead 
by the glory of the Father, even so we also should 
walk in newness of life," forever. That is, in the 
resurrected life. But there is no walking in life for- 
ever for the wicked after the resurrection. The last 
account we have of them is, they go into the lake of 
fire, which is the second death. 

Romans 6:16: " Know ye not that to whom ye 
yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are 
to whom ye obey ; whether of sin unto death or of 
obedience unto righteousness" ? What language can 
convey more positively that the wicked are not im- 
mortal ? " Sin unto death." The sins of the human 
family since the promise of a Saviour are not the 
cause of the first or temporal death. The majority 
of our race, who never had personally sinned, sub- 
mit to this, on account of Adam's disobedience ; but 
it is the death of the resurrected life from which 
there is no promise of a deliverance. Having such 
voluminous and positive testimony of the wicked's 
final and utter destruction, can an individual be guilt- 
less and still believe and proclaim that God will hold 
intelligent human beings in conscious misery through 
all eternity ? — thus trusting in the devil's assertion 
and their own perverted tastes, and false education, 
and fallible judgments, rather than confide in the 



ROMANS. 173 

teachings and revelations of infinite wisdom and love. 
May God stir up your pure minds by way of reverence, 
and filial love, and obedience ! You may make the 
author a target for your envenomed darts ; you may 
hurl your anathemas against him for this biblical 
production of God's truth ; you may heap a pyramid 
of ridicule upon its humble pages, and pervert the 
divine revelations which it quotes ; but as sure as 
there is a God in the universe and he has revealed 
his will to man in his sacred book, the omniscient 
God will hold you accountable for your temerity, and 
speak to you at last in more terrific tones than he 
did to the friends of his servant Job. I beseech you, 
review the canon of Scripture, analyze its verbiage, 
study its spirit and sentiment, weigh its arguments 
on this subject, and see if they do not teach the final 
immortality of the righteous and the positive de- 
struction of the wicked. 

6 : 21 : "What fruit had ye, then, in those things 
whereof ye are now ashamed ; for the end of these 
things is death." This language was addressed to 
converts from Judaism and heathenism ; who had left 
the ways of error and sin, and accepted the teachings 
of Paul and his Saviour. They were now walking in 
the light, and were ashamed of their former lives of 
idolatry and sin, the end of which was death. If my 
opponents regard the death here mentioned as tem- 
poral death, they make the declaration of the apostle 
meaningless ; for he expected his converts to pass 
through this ordeal as certainly as though they had 
remained idolaters. If they pervert this language and 
say it means the death of happiness, they again strip 



1/4 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

it of significance ; for men have not real happiness in 
disobedience. It can not refer to any thing but the 
death of the resurrected life ; if so, it is a positive 
averment that those who die unregenerated are not 
immortal, but will certainly die that death which has 
no awakening. The fallacy of his Satanic majesty's 
creed is here, as everywhere, manifest. Verse 22, 
here we have the counterpart to the previous quota- 
tion : " But now being made free from sin," which pro- 
duces death, " we become servants to God, ye have 
your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." 
What can be more to the point ? A life of sin will 
" end in death," everlasting ; and a life of holiness 
will " end in everlasting life." The destiny of each 
class will be the same as to duration. The one 
death, or no life, the other life — each of which will be 
eternal. 

That there might not be any failure in understand- 
ing the apostle's meaning and declaration, he adds 
in verse 23 : " For the wages of sin is death ; but the 
gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord." The original wokI here translated wages was 
a term used by generals to express the pay and food 
which they meted to their soldiers as a consideration 
for their services. The apostle uses it here to ex- 
press the pay or consideration the sinner would have 
for his services to the adversary. The consideration 
had for a life of sin " is death," an extinction of life. 
Temporal death ? No. This he would have had, 
had he been righteous. It can not be the death of 
happiness, for this we have found to be manifestly 
absurd. Then it must be the death of the resur- 



ROMANS. - 1/5 

rected life, and of necessity must be eternal. " But 
the gift of God is eternal life." There is no quali- 
fying phrase added, such as happy or unhappy. It is 
simply life — conscious existence. It would be ab- 
surd, wicked, blasphemous to suppose God would give 
an eternal existence without its being happy. The 
counterpart is death — death of being, loss of life. 
The one, life, is the free gift of God. The other God 
does not give ; it is the wages, the consideration, for 
a life of sin. What a terrible thought — men will not 
receive the gift of life eternal, but will labor for eter- 
nal death, eternal loss of being, an extinction which 
God, so to speak, is obligated by eternal justice to 
bestow. Terrible doom, beyond imagining ! This 
proves the biblical theory of the destruction of the 
finally impenitent without a possibility of doubt ; 
and I should have long ceased adducing scripture as 
proof of the non-immortality of the sinner, were it 
not for the original design of producing every allu- 
sion in the scriptures to the destiny of man ; that the 
advocates for the immortality of the wicked, when 
they are driven from this point and from that point, 
and are compelled to acknowledge that this and the 
other scripture seems to favor the destruction of the 
wicked, they may not turn away very wisely with the 
untrue assertion that other parts of the scripture 
teach differently. If there is any way of circum- 
venting this diabolical fallacy and deception, it should 
be done. It should be met, whether we find it in 
Eden or in the patriarchal dispensation, Jewish or 
Christian. 

We are obliged to make some repetitions, from the 



1/6 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

fact that the allusions to this subject are numerous, 
and are couched in similar language, if not in the 
same terms. We will, however, endeavor to avoid 
monotony or tediousness. I am thankful the reve- 
lation on this subject is so clear, explicit, and abun- 
dant. When all shall have been compiled in as 
compact a form as is practicable, no one need to be 
in doubt of the true destiny of the wicked. No one 
sentiment in the Bible is more clearly defined and* 
revealed. 

In Romans 8 : 6, the apostle again alludes to this 
doctrine. He says, " For to be carnally-minded is 
death ; but to be spiritually-minded is life and 
peace." That is, the man who cherishes and in- 
dulges in the grosser passions and appetites of his 
nature is carnally-minded ; and such indulgences and 
characters will end in death. In what death ? Not 
the first or temporal death, for the spiritually-mind- 
ed alike pass through this, but the low, the grovel- 
ing, and the vile come to the death of the purchased 
life, to which the righteous do not come. " But to be 
spiritually-minded" — those that are pure in thought 
and life will, after they have paid the penalty of 
Adam's sin in its modified form, enjoy the resurrect- 
ed life, not forfeited, eternally. It is not difficult to 
understand this teaching. A wicked life leads to and 
ends in death eternal, and a holy life leads to and 
ends in life everlasting. 

Romans 8:13:" For if ye live after the flesh, ye 
shall die ; but if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify 
the deeds of the body, ye shall live." What an- 
nouncement can be more lucid ? If ye live after or 



ROMANS. 



// 



indulge in the corruptions of an unsanctified nature, 
ye shall die. This can have no other reference than 
to the second death, and is proof positive that the 
wicked are not immortal. For the statement is, the 
purchased or resurrected life shall die. Why ? Be- 
cause it was forfeited by an unholy life. But if ye, 
by the grace of God, do mortify or overcome the 
fallen appetites of your nature, " ye shall live" eter- 
nally. Why ? Because ye did not live and die in 
the forfeiture of the purchased or resurrected life. 
There is no doctrine in the Bible more clearly enun- 
ciated than this — that the wicked will be destroyed. 
We have produced the entire teachings of St. Paul, 
in his letter to the Romans, on the subject of the 
destiny of the wicked ; and it is for each reader to 
form his own opinion as to which doctrine the apostle 
taught — whether God would hold the finally impe- 
nitent in indescribable torments in the lake of fire 
forever, or, as Malachi says, the wicked shall be 
burned up root and branch. In other words, are 
the finally impenitent immortal or are they not im- 
mortal ? I am sure each candid reader, without an 
exception, will conclude, without hesitation, that he 
does not in the slightest manner intimate the doctrine 
of eternal conscious misery. 



178 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 



We will next turn our attention to the reading of 
the same apostle's letter to the Corinthians, and 
carefully note each allusion to this same subject. 
His first mention of this subject may be found in 
the 1 8th verse of the first chapter : " For the preach* 
ing of the cross is to them that perish foolishness ; 
but unto us who are saved it is the power of God." 
Christ crucified is the theme ; or, the preaching of 
the cross. Christ crucified to save men from eter- 
nal death. In what sense can it be said to be foolish- 
ness to them that perish ? They treat the announce- 
ment of the death of Christ as a matter of no interest 
to them ; and they thus reject the only means to 
avoid eternal death. Hence, they will die, will 
perish — will be consumed in the fires of the last 
day ; because they have forfeited the resurrected 
life purchased by the Saviour whom they reject. To 
the one it is foolishness, because they will not avail 
themselves of the benefits of the announcement ; to 
the other it is the power of God to save from death 
and sin. This text is in perfect harmony with his 
other teachings, and also with the teachings of the 
Saviour and Moses : that the wicked will finally 
perish — be destroyed. 

1 Cor. 3 : 17: "If any man defile the temple of 
God, him shall God destroy ; for the temple of God 
is holy, which temple ye are." Here it appears the 
entire person, soul and body, constituted the temple 
of God, and should be destroyed. When shall this 



1 CORINTHIANS. 179 

destruction take place ? Certainly not at the hour 
of mortal dissolution, at the end of this probationary 
life. Why ? Because the word of God is true and 
reliable ; and if this destruction was at that time, the 
declaration would conflict with universal experience ; 
for very few of those who defile their bodies meet 
with violent deaths, as special judgments from God. 
Again, if this destruction meant temporal death, it 
would be no special judgment at all ; for those who 
keep themselves pure meet with the same dissolu- 
tion ; and the declaration would have no significance. 
It can mean nothing else than that it will take place 
after the general and final judgment. If it takes 
place after the resurrection, as the word of God is 
true, it is the destruction of the resurrected body and 
life. If, according to God's word, the resurrected body 
and life are destroyed, as it is here declared, I ask, 
Where is the revelation that such will be resuscitated 
to live forever ? My opponents must admit there is 
none. Then do they not acknowledge that such as 
defile the temple of God are not immortal ? As you 
love the righteousness of your Maker and the eternal 
welfare of your fellow-man, I pray you adhere to this 
confession and avowal. Then, I would ask, where will 
this destruction take place ? I am sure there is not 
the least intimation in the Scriptures that it will take 
place anywhere beyond this planet. The inference 
then would be, nothing to the contrary appearing in 
revelation, that it would be upon this planet — in this 
world. Do not the Scriptures warrant us in this be- 
lief? Allow me here to produce a few quotations on 
this point, which, I think, will settle this important 



l80 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

fact, that the hell in which the wicked will meet their 
doom or retribution will be on this earth, and no- 
where else. Malachi 4 : 1 : " For behold, the day 
cometh that shall burn as an oven ; and all the proud, 
yea, all that do wickedly, shall be stubble ; and the 
day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord 
of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor 
branch." This day and scene is evidently the judg- 
ment, and this scripture reveals, in the clearest terms, 
the destiny of the finally impenitent. They shall be 
burned up — totally ; nothing left of them having vi- 
tality, not even root or branch. Where shall this be 
experienced ? 2 Peter 3:7: " But the heavens and 
the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept 
in store, reserved unto the fire against the day of judg- 
ment, and perdition of ungodly men." Here we are 
informed that the fire, which Malachi says will burn 
as an oven, and will burn up all that do wickedly, is 
the same fire unto which the Apostle Peter says this 
world is reserved, which will produce the perdition or 
destruction of wicked men. To say these fires were 
not the same, would be to say that God would burn 
up the wicked twice, at different times and in differ- 
ent places ; which the word does not warrant. But to 
give us the greater assurance that the tragic scene 
which Malachi mentions, as well as the time or day, 
are the same as those which Peter announces, the 
apostle continues to say inverse 11, "But the day 
of the Lord will come as a thief in the night ; in the 
which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, 
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat ; the 
earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be 



I CORINTHIANS. l8l 

burned up." The day and place of Malachi are the 
same day and place of St. Peter's statement. As 
proof of the fact that this tragic scene, described by 
Malachi and the Apostle Peter, is the same place of 
retribution for all the ungodly, the hell into which 
the heathen, and all the nations that forget God, are 
cast in the day of final doom, I would make one 
more quotation. Rev. 20 : 1 1-1 5 : " And I saw a great 
white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose 
face the earth and the heaven fled away ; and there 
was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, 
small and great, stand before God ; and the books 
were opened, and another book was opened, which is 
the book of life ; and the dead were judged out of 
those things which were written in the books, accord- 
ing to their works. And the sea gave up the dead 
which were in it ; and death and hell delivered up the 
dead which were in them, and they were judged every 
man according to their works. And death and hell 
were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second 
death. And whosoever was not found written in the 
book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Here are 
three several announcements of the judgment-day by 
three distinguished servants of God, each describing 
the awful grandeur of this most terrific and tragic 
scene, defining the place, when, where, and nature of 
the final doom of all the enemies of God. 

Who, of all those who appreciate a revelation from 
the great Author of the universe, and believe the 
same, will dare to say and attempt to prove that there 
is another lake of fire, hell, or doom for the enemies 
of God ? Who will undertake to prove that this lake 



1 82 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

of fire will burn eternally ? After such an attempt, 
who will affirm, and give a shadow of proof, that the 
enemies of God will have an everlasting life in sin, 
rebellion, and misery ? Should he succeed to his 
own, or to the satisfaction of others, he will only do 
what the devil has done before him ; that is, to turn 
the truth of God into a lie. God said to Adam, in 
the case of disobedience, " Thou shalt surely die." 
The devil said, " Thou shalt not surely die." God 
said the sinner is not immortal ; the devil said he is 
immortal. I ask any honest critic, if I do not advo- 
cate the divine creed, and if orthodoxy does not de- 
scend to advocate the devil's doctrine ? Malachi, St. 
John, and St. Peter, in their several announcements, 
coincide and teach, in the most unequivocal terms, 
that the unholy, in the day of doom, are destroyed — 
burned up. Neither does the Saviour, or Moses, or 
either of the prophets or apostles, teach any other 
destiny for the finally impenitent but destruction, 
consumption, death, and extinction. 

Since this is the unvarying testimony of each of 
those who have had a part in giving us a revelation 
from God, as dictated by himself, I would ask those 
who teach the immortality of the sinner, Why will 
this earth, after the final judgment, be immersed in a 
fiery deluge ? Why shall the elements melt with 
fervent heat ? Is it not to destroy the works of the 
devil, as well as the devil himself? Will you dare to 
deny this ? If not, then if this fire will accomplish that 
for which it was prepared and kindled, why will you 
not acknowledge that the wicked will not live for- 
ever ? that they will be as the prophet says — " They 



I CORINTHIANS. 1 83 

shall be as though they had not been ;" " The soul 
that sinneth, it shall die ;" or, as our blessed Saviour 
says, " They shall be burned " ? If for the safety of 
your creed, you deny that these fires of the last day 
will accomplish that for which they were kindled, and 
thus burn up the wicked, what will you do with such 
scriptures as these : Matthew 25 : 41 : "Then shall 
he say unto them on his left hand, Depart from me, 
ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil 
and his angels." Heb. 2 : 14 : " Forasmuch, then, as 
the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also 
himself likewise took part of the same, that through 
death he might destroy him that had the power of 
death, that is, the devil." 1 John 3:8: " For this 
purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might 
destroy the works of the devil." Now these scrip- 
tures positively declare that the fire of the last day 
was especially prepared for the devil and his angels ; 
and that they will be destroyed. Now, who are the 
angels, servants, and children of the devil, if wicked 
men are not ? I ask, if the Bible does not teach the 
destruction, the death, the extinction of all the ene- 
mies of God, does it teach the salvation and immor- 
tality of the righteous ? Is not the one as positively 
taught and assured as the other ? Then why will you, 
my brethren, stop your ears, as the Ephesians, and 
cry, Truthful and honorable is the saying of the devil, 
" The sinner is immortal " ? 

If, then, the fire unto which this world is reserved 
against the day of judgment and perdition of ungod- 
ly men, is the hell into which the heathen and all the 
nations that forget God are to be cast, how can any 



I84 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

one believe the wicked will suffer in it eternally ? 
That there is no other lake of fire or hell for the 
enemies of God, is God's truth ; but to say this fire 
will burn eternally, is untrue, if the Scriptures are 
true. This fire unquestionably will burn up the works 
of the devil. If the works of the devil are the fuel 
which will feed this fire, is it not reasonable to sup- 
pose the fire will go out when the works are con- 
sumed ? To suppose otherwise, would be to entertain 
the absurdity that because God was displeased with 
sin he would destroy works with which he was pleased. 
Do not the Scriptures warrant us in believing that 
this earth will be purified by this fire, and then be- 
come the new earth, " in which dwelleth righteous- 
ness" ? Does not Peter say, 3 : 12, 13, " Looking for 
and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, 
wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, 
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Never- 
theless we, according to his promise, look for new 
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous- 
ness" ? What promise ? Isaiah 65 : 16, 17: "That 
he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless him- 
self in the God of truth ; and he that sweareth in 
the earth shall swear by the God of truth ; because 
the former things are forgotten, and because they 
are hid from mine* eyes. For behold, I create new 
heavens and a new earth ; and the former shall not 
be remembered or come into mind." Thus our 
present heaven and earth, when purified by the 
fires of the last day, will be the promised new heaven 
and new earth. If it were not so, how could that 
precious promise of our Saviour be verified, " The 



I CORINTHIANS. 1 85 

meek shall inherit the earth" ? Is not this truth 
clearly set forth in Revelation 6 : 9, 10, "And they 
sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the 
book, and open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, 
and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of 
every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation ; 
and hast made us unto God kings and priests ; and 
we shall reign on earth" ? Thus we see this earth, 
when purified, will be the new earth in which the 
righteous after the resurrection will reign as kings 
and priests forever. Hence it is evident that the fire 
of the last day, into which the heathen, and all that 
forget God, and all that do wickedly are to be cast, 
and which is to purify the earth, will go out — will 
pass away with the works of the devil forever. Sin, 
the sinner, and the devil, and all that offends, gone 
forever with the fire unto which this world is reserv- 
ed for purification. Glorious thought ! Happy era, 
when purity, peace, and uninterrupted felicity reign 
throughout the realm of God. Yes ; God says the 
former things shall not be remembered nor come into 
his mind. With these clear revelations in view, is it 
not the height of blasphemy for a finite creature to 
say that God, who has repeatedly said, " My goodness 
and mercy endureth forever," evidently to all his 
creatures, will perpetuate the life and misery of the 
hapless sinner to all eternity, in a lake of fire which 
God plainly teaches will last only sufficiently long 
to purify the earth by burning up the works of the 
devil ? I wonder not at the exclamation of the 
Psalmist, " O ye sons of .men, how long will ye turn 
my glory into shame ?" I ask, with the intensest 



1 86 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

solemnity, those who preach the immortality of the 
wicked, how long will you teach the doctrine of the 
devil for the truth of God ? Oh ! teach not your dire- 
ful creed in church ; publish it not in the world, lest 
the apostate sons of heaven smile their fiendish grins 
at your temerity. Shame to a love so desecrated ! 
God's spirit never justified such a libel on his charac- 
ter. " Be not deceived ; God is not mocked." 

i Corinthians 6 : 9, St Paul alludes to the destiny 
of the wicked : " Know ye not that the unrighteous 
shall not inherit the kingdom of God ? Be not de- 
ceived ; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adul- 
terers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with 
mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, 
nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the king- 
dom of God." At first view, the cursory reader 
might think the wicked would only be separated from 
the righteous, and would have another location for 
existence. But on deeper thought this is not admis- 
sible. We are not to suppose that the devil and his 
children will have a kingdom after the judgment ; 
though the poetic effusion of Milton would make the 
devil say, " I had rather reign in hell than serve in 
heaven." It is but a limited view we take of the king- 
dom of God if we limit it to this mundane system. 
God's kingdom extends over the universe. " When 
all shall be subdued unto the Son, the Son will give 
up the kingdom to the Father, that God may be all in 
all." At this point in eternity, we have no reason to 
believe that there will be an opposing influence in 
the entire realm of the universe. I say we have not 
the slightest intimation in the Scriptures that at that 



I CORINTHIANS. 1 87 

time any opposition to the government of God will 
exist. If this shall be the case, and no one has just 
ground for a contrary opinion, would it not appear 
that none of these vile characters enumerated have 
any inheritance in the kingdom or universe of God ? 
They would be extinct ; and the words of the prophet 
would be verified, " The wicked shall be as though 
they had not been ;" or, as another says, " The wicked 
shall be as ashes under the righteous' feet." If it 
were true the wicked were immortal, would it not be 
the strangest thing imaginable that every allusion to 
this subject directly militated against the view ? No ; 
it is not true. The wicked are not immortal. It is 
a device of the devil, a falsehood of the evil one. 

I Corinthians 15 : 17, 1 8, St. Paul again says, "And 
if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain : ye are yet 
in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep 
in Christ are perished." This shows clearly what 
meaning the apostle attached to the word perish. 
Christ is the only hope for us to have a resurrection. 
If Christ is not raised from the dead, he is still dead ; 
and we can not hope for a resurrection if he is not re- 
surrected and alive. Then those who have died in the 
faith that Jesus was raised, and through whose resur- 
rection they hoped to be resurrected — they, having a 
false hope, are perished, as those will perish who will 

not accept of the benefit of the atonement. He uses 

> j - 

the word perish in the sense of loss of life or con- 
scious being. Man has no power to save himself 
from natural death or the effect of natural death ; 
much more, then, is he powerless to raise himself 
from the second death, which is the death of the pur- 



1 88 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

chased or resurrected life. In his utter powerless- 
ness to raise himself from the first or natural death, 
he found in Jesus the power he needed to live again ; 
but in his utter helplessness in the second death, he 
has no promise of a Saviour. As the first would 
have been an eternal death without a Saviour, so the 
death of the resurrected life will be eternal, for it will 
have no antidote. If man would perish or have no 
life if Christ was not raised, is it not certain the sin- 
ner, in the second death, will perish or lose his con- 
scious being when he has no Christ ? Can there be 
any thing more certain than this : that without Christ 
is no life in his creatures ? Does he not say, " I am 
the way, the truth, and the life" ? also, " Ye will not 
come to me that ye might have life" ? I ask not the 
reader to believe what I believe ; I ask him to believe 
what God and his inspired servants say. Does not 
the apostle, without the possibility of a doubt, say 
that those who had died, and those who lived, had 
perished, or would perish, if they had not the pres- 
tige or efficacy of an atonement by Christ ? Then 
why will men talk about the everlasting life of a sin- 
ner, when he rejects Christ and deliberately denies 
himself the benefit of the atonement ? From no 
stand-point can the doctrine of the immortality of 
the sinner be viewed without its appearing utterly 
fallacious. 

Again, verses 21, 22 of the same chapter : " For 
since by man came death, by man came also the re- 
surrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even 
so in Christ shall all be made alive." From what ? 
Evidently from natural death, the consequence of 



I CORINTHIANS. l89 

Adam's sin. Thus it appears the benefit of Christ's 
death and resurrection was, to give man a new or re- 
surrected life ; and now mart enjoys a new probation. 
What for ? To see if he, through Christ, proves 
worthy to have this purchased or resurrected life 
protracted inimitably, or forfeiting it by sin, he 
should lose it forever in the second death. Now 
mankind enjoy a probation to have the resurrected 
life to be protracted forever, the same as Adam at 
first had a probation, that his natural life might last 
forever. As Adam forfeited and lost his natural life 
by disobedience, so the finally impenitent forfeit and 
lose the resurrected life by individual sins. If the 
forfeiture of the natural life brought a death that 
would have been eternal, without an atonement, so 
will a forfeiture of the resurrected life produce a 
death which will be eternal, without a Saviour. How 
can men evade this truth, this revelation, and say the 
wicked are immortal ? 

i Corinthians 15 : 24-26 : " Then cometh the end, 
when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to 
God, even the Father : when he shall have put clown 
all rule, and all authority and power. For he must 
reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 
The last enemy that is destroyed is death." It is out 
of the power of language to convey the idea of the 
positive destruction of the enemies of God clearer 
than it is in this scripture. Then cometh the end 
of this human, probationary life — the whole drama of 
a sinning world. This world is now in a state of re- 
bellion against the righteous government of God. 
God is the rightful sovereign ; but his authority is 



190 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

disputed by his adversaries. This moral conflict is 
now raging. Christ is endeavoring to reconcile men 
to their rightful sovereign. Those who can not be 
induced to become reconciled, Christ says, Matt. 21 : 
41, " he will miserably destroy ;" which will certain- 
ly be done to all who will not accept of the mediation 
of Christ. It is said Christ will deliver up the king- 
dom to the Father, when he shall have put down all 
rule, authority, and powers, by his cross or by his 
judgments. Now, this will be accomplished before 
the surrender of the kingdom to the Father. But 
does not every Bible student know that there is a 
moral impossibility to accomplish this without utter- 
ly destroying the incorrigible ? Does not God teach, 
by the Apostle Paul, Romans 8:7, " The carnal 
mind is enmity against God ; for it is not subject to 
the law of God, neither indeed can be," either in time 
or eternity ? Is it not positively taught here that the 
carnal mind, as long as it remains carnal, can not be 
subject to the law or government of God ? Is it not 
evident from this, that the sinner must be converted 
to a humble, docile, devotional obedience to the 
government of God, or be destroyed — become ex- 
tinct ? The apostle says Christ will put down all 
opposing influences, and then he will deliver up the 
kingdom to the Father. He also says the disposition 
of the enemies of God is such that it can not submit 
to the law of God as long as it remains carnal. 
Then is it not absolutely certain that if all opposi- 
tion to the divine government is done away, these 
rebels must become extinct. " The last enemy that 
is destroyed is death." The devil and all his asso- 



I CORINTHIANS. ICjI 

ciates, and his power, which was death, are destroy- 
ed before Christ delivers up the kingdom to the 
Father. The last enemy — which was death, and 
which had slain millions of God's intelligent crea- 
tures — will be destroyed. If the last enemy de- 
stroyed is death, is it not certain the wicked were 
destroyed before ? If death is destroyed, how can 
the wicked have an eternal conscious being in the 
second death ? What a glorious scene ! A universe 
in harmony ; in tranquillity all ; ]ove and harmony 
pervading the whole. Why should men labor so 
hard and so determinedly to mar and interrupt this 
eternal scene of felicity and glory by the yells, the 
groans, the tortures, and the blasphemies of those 
writhing in eternal agonies ? 

Then the apostle, as if to bar every approach of 
error, misconstruction, or misconception, adds in 
verse 28, " And when all things shall be subdued 
unto him, then shall the Son also be subject unto 
him that put all things under him, that God may be 
all in all." This would seem to be a refutation of 
an idea that might be advanced by the favorers of the 
doctrine of the immortality of the wicked, that this 
subjugation might be a forcible constraint of their 
enemies. It says, when all things are subdued ; 
this includes the interior motions of the mind as well 
as the external actions of the body. When the dis- 
position, will, and ambition are subdued, every power 
and impulse that would be consonant with the sub- 
jection of the Son to the Father, then, and not till 
then, will the government be delivered up to the 



I92 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

Father. Then, and not till then, will God be all in 
all. How can he be in the sinner to all eternity, 
when he will not and can not be in time ? Does 
he not say, " Whosoever defileth his body, him will 
God destroy" ? I am astonished that honest men can 
leap over such barriers to error, and revel in the 
chief of crimes. What can be worse than to charge 
God with malevolence, vindictiveness, and most hor- 
rid cruelty ? 

Again, verse 42 : " So also is the resurrection of 
the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in 
incorruption." This has reference to the righteous 
exclusively. What made those persons corruptible, 
who were raised incorruptible ? Was it not sin ? 
What is it to be corruptible ? Is it not to be sub- 
ject to decay, consumption, dissolution, destruction ? 
Then, is it not certain that if the sinner is not 
absolved from his sin, before or in the judgment, he 
can not become like the righteous, incorruptible or 
immortal ? Is it not singular that every allusion to 
the destiny of the sinner, in the Scriptures, should 
show so manifestly that he was not immortal ? and 
yet men, almost in general, believe and teach that he 
is. I doubt that any common-sense mind, reading 
the Bible without being previously biased by educa- 
tion, would imbibe the doctrine that the ungodly 
were immortal. But some may ask, What proof 
is there that this scripture had exclusive reference 
to the righteous ? I would answer, This letter was 
written to the church at Corinth. Please notice 1 : 
1-4 : " Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ 



I CORINTHIANS. I93 

through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, 
unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to 
them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to 
be saints, with all that in every place call upon 
the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and 
ours : Grace be unto you, and peace from God our 
Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." 

1 Corinthians 15:53: " For this corruptible must 
put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on im- 
mortality." This does not take place until after the 
resurrection. Then, how can the advocates for im- 
mortality affirm that even the righteous are immor- 
tal before that time ? The apostle affirms that their 
mortality then puts on immortality, and not before. 
Who should know if St. Paul, inspired by God, did 
not ? Every human being, while in this mortal life, 
is a probationer for an immortal life. 54 : "So when 
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and 
this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall 
be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death 
is swallowed up in victory." Man can not, in any 
truthful sense, be said to be immortal while there is 
a possibility of dying. I should think any one would 
consider it self-evident that a probationer for life 
could not be immortal while probation lasts. Then 
is it not simply absurd to say men in this life are im- 
mortal ? If the wicked could have life or conscious 
being in any kind of death after the resurrection, 
then it could not be said that death was swallowed 
up in victory, while it had power over any living. 
Nor can the word corruptible in this passage 



194 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

assume the meaning of impurity. It conveys the 
idea of wasting, consumption, and is the counterpart 
to incorruptibility or impossibility of decay. Hence, 
men corruptible, subject to decay, can not be said to 
be incorruptible and immortal. 



2 CORINTHIANS. ig$ 



Having produced every allusion to the destiny of 
the ungodly by St. Paul, in his first epistle to the 
Corinthians, I am confident the candid reader will be 
satisfied that there is not the least intimation of the 
doctrine of the immortality of the sinner. We will 
now pass on to the review of the second epistle 
to the same church. The first mention of this sub- 
ject may be found in 2 : 15, 16 : " For we are unto 
God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved 
and in them that perish. To the one we are the 
savor of death unto death ; and to the other, we are 
a savor of life unto life." What can be more explicit ? 
It is as if he had said, The gospel we preach is ac- 
ceptable to God, though in the case of rejection, it 
will produce hardness, insensibility, and afterward 
the second death ; and in the case of its acceptance, 
it will bring peace, absolution from sin, and salva- 
tion from the second death. To the one we become 
an influence for the confirmation in a life of sin by 
the rejection of our message ; to the other we be- 
come an influence to produce a holy life by the 
acceptance of our gospel. The one influence tends 
to salvation from sin and eternal death ; the other 
influence, through indifference, tends to death in 
those who perish or will be destroyed. 

The next and only other allusion to this question 
in this second epistle will be found in 5 : 4, and 
may be considered a negative allusion : " For we 
that are in the tabernacle do groan, being burdened ; 



I96 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, 
that mortality might be swallowed up of life." There 
seems to be in this passage more than an intimation 
that the great apostle to the Gentiles did not con- 
sider himself then immortal ; but he looked forward 
with a joyful and confident anticipation of having 
his mortality swallowed up in immortality. If the 
Apostle Paul did not consider himself immortal in 
this present probationary life, I think it absurd to 
say that every specimen of humanity is immortal. 
How can my opponents say the wicked are im- 
mortal ? In our examination thus far of St. Paul's 
writings, which embrace his epistle to the Romans 
and his two epistles to the Corinthians, we find him 
uniform on this subject, teaching in the clearest and 
most positive manner that the wicked are not im- 
mortal, but will be completely destroyed in the judg- 
ment. 

In Paul's letter to the Galatians there is but a 
single allusion to this subject, which will be found in 
5 : 19-22 : " Now the works of the flesh are manifest, 
which are these : adultery, fornication, uncleanness, 
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, 
emulation, wrath, strife, seditious heresies, envyings, 
murders, drunkenness, revilings, and such like ; of 
the which I tell you before, as I have told you in 
time past, that they which do such things shall not 
inherit the kingdom of God ;" which quotation I 
will leave with the reader, having commented upon 
it somewhat before. If they shall not inherit any 
part of the kingdom of God, they must become 
extinct. 



EPHESIANS. I97 



In the same apostle's letter to the Ephesians, there 
is but one allusion to the destiny of the ungodly, 
which, being in nearly the same language as that 
quoted in Galatians, I will quote without comment 
I intend to quote every mention of this subject in 
the Bible. Eph. 5:5: " For this you know, that no 
whoremonger, nor unclean person, covetous man, who 
is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom 
of Christ and of God." 



I98 THE DESTINY 0F» MAN. 



Philippians 1:28: " And nothing terrified by your 
adversaries, which is to them an evident token of per- 
dition ; but to you of salvation, and that from God." 
That is, the fortitude of Christians, in the most threat- 
ening and imminent dangers ; their cheerful endu- 
rance of afflictions and persecutions ; their confidence 
in their rectitude and in the justice and faithfulness 
of God, would prove to the sinner a token of their 
demerit and the justice of their perdition and destruc- 
tion. 

Philippians 4 : 18, 19: " For many walk of whom 
I have told you often, and now tell you even weep- 
ing, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ ; 
whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, 
and whose glory is their shame, and who mind 
earthly things." This text may not be considered 
as having direct testimony on the subject of the 
wicked's destiny, yet it most manifestly teaches that 
they had forfeited the purchased life, and, if it were 
not regained through repentance and faith in the 
atonement, their resurrected life would perish in the 
second death. 

Philippians 2:10: " That at the name of Jesus 
every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things 
in earth, and things under the earth." This includes 
the entire multitude of the enemies of God. If this 
is true, and also the declaration, " The carnal heart is 
enmity to God ; is not subject to his law, and indeed 
can not be," is it not certain the wicked will be de- 



PHILIPPIANS. I99 

stroyed — become extinct — have no existence ? There 
could be but little bowing of the knee in reverence 
by those who should be compelled to writhe in the 
lake of fire and brimstone eternally, and at the same 
time belching out their horrid blasphemies against 
the eternal instrument of their torture. Can you sup- 
pose it possible for God to inspire his servants to 
teach such palpable absurdities, if the wicked are im- 
mortal ? 



200 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 



Thessalonians 5 : 2, 3 : "For yourselves know per- 
fectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief 
in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and 
safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, 
as travail upon a woman with child ; and they shall 
not escape." That the apostle here refers to the final 
doom of the sinner, at the second appearing of the 
Lord, there can be no doubt. This will unquestion- 
ably be their confidence, when, led by the devil, they 
shall compass the camp of the saints of the Most 
High, thinking, by their countless multitude and 
their united force, to bring about a compromise with 
the Eternal. But John says, Rev. 20 : 9, " And fire 
came down out of heaven and devoured them." Oh ! 
how sudden the destruction, and how complete — for 
"not one shall escape." This, even my opponents 
must concede, is the last account we have of the ene- 
mies of God. My brethren, I pray you break from 
your delusion ; receive God's record ; ignore the 
devil's creed ; teach men their true destiny ; rejoice 
in the honor of God, and justify his ways to men. 

2 Thessalonians 1:9:" Who shall be punished with 
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord 
and from the glory of his power, when he shall come 
to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all 
them that believe in that day." While this expres- 
sion is received as the word of God, how can any one, 
without sinning, deny the extinction of all the ene- 
mies of God at the judgment ? " Punished with ever- 



THESSALONIANS. 201 

lasting destruction." Who ? " Those who know not 
God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ ;" not their happiness ; not only their bodies, 
not only their minds, their spirits, their life, their 
souls ; but those ! — not only all of them, but all that 
there is of them — their entire beings — " shall be pun- 
ished." What with ? With everlasting destruction. 
Can there be any doubt about the meaning of the 
word destruction ? Would any mistake my meaning, 
if I should say, My house was destroyed by fire, by 
water, by wind, or by earthquake ? Has not the word 
destruction, as used by the apostle, the same mean- 
ing ? Then, if the wicked shall be destroyed in the 
lake of fire, at the day of judgment, destroyed for- 
ever, without the hope or the possibility of a reforma- 
tion, who will have the effrontery to charge Paul and 
his Maker with falsehood, by saying the enemies of 
God will live forever, eternally, in the abyss of woe ? 
are immortal ? You men, who teach this Satanic 
heresy, that the wicked will live eternally — are im- 
mortal ; by all the sacredness of the relation you sus- 
tain to the sovereign Ruler of the universe, I charge 
you, reconsider your theory, and cease to charge your 
Creator with atrocit}'. It is not in accordance with 
the nature and being of the Author of this universe 
to be complaisant with the misery of his sentient 
creatures to all eternity. 

That there might not be any misapprehension of 
the doom of the ungodly, the apostle not only says 
their punishment will be everlasting destruction, but 
it will be so complete as- to put them out of the pre- 
sence of God and the glory of his power. Does not 



202 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

this assure extinction ? Can a finite being conceive 
a place where the presence of God is not ? The 
Psalmist says, 139 : 7-13 : " Whither shall I flee from 
thy presence ? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art 
there : if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art 
there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell 
in the uttermost parts of the sea ; even there shall 
thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. 
If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even 
the night shall be light about me. Yea, the dark- 
ness hideth not from thee ; but the night shineth as 
the day : the darkness and the light are both alike 
unto thee." Yet the expression is, " From the pre- 
sence of the Lord." To make this truthful, is it not 
necessary the enemies of God become extinct ? Will 
any one in his extremity say it means God's favor- 
able presence ? How do you know ? St. Paul does 
not say so. Nor is it revealed elsewhere. But to em- 
phasize it still more, and destroy the last lingering, 
flittering hope for the immortality of the sinner, 
the apostle adds, " and from the glory of his power." 
Think of it — from the glory of his power ! How does 
any thing or being exist but by the power of the 
Almighty ? and this is withheld. If the almighty 
power of God is withdrawn from the sinner, will he 
not fall into nonentity ? Can he exist independent 
of the Deity ? Christian, if ever folly run mad, do 
you not evidence it ? If ever there was an infatua- 
tion, are you not under it ? Can you present a won- 
der equal to yourself? A Christian, so called because 
of his love and likeness to Christ, bearing the image 
of his God, believing that the infinite love, justice, and 



THESSALOXIAx\S. 203 

mercy of the Creator will consign his hapless creatures 
to an unending torture for the sin of ignorance, the 
sin of doubt, the sin of an act considered virtuous in 
his obscurity and depravity ! I do not say that there 
are not millions who sin deliberately in the light, but 
these do not include all who will be condemned. I 
pray God to save my erring brethren from an unwit- 
ting sin that may hazard their fond hopes of heaven ! 

Again, - suppose this baseless assertion, that it 
means from the favorable presence of God, were ad- 
mitted, it would avail the maker of it nothing. The 
destruction then takes place in the unfavorable pre- 
sence of God. The destruction will certainly come, 
as there it truth in God's word, whether it be in the 
favorable or unfavorable presence. It is inevitable 
and sure. A destruction, too, that will place the ene- 
mies of God out of his favorable or unfavorable pre- 
sence. 

2 Thessalonians 2 : 8, 9, 10 : "And then shall that 
wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume 
with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the 
brightness of his coming ; even him whose coming is 
after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and 
lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unright- 
eousness in them that perish, because they received 
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." As 
to whom this man of sin is, I have no doubt ; but 
whoever he may be, he shall be consumed by the 
brightness of Christ's coming. Consumed ! What 
does this convey ? If a block of wood is consumed 
by fire, what is the result ? You say naught but 
ashes remain. Then why not anticipate the same 



204 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

sequence for the man of sin at the coming of Christ ? 
especially when it fulfills the prophecy, " The wicked 
shall be ashes under the soles of the righteous' feet," 
and harmonizes with the rest of God's word. 

Not only the man of sin is destroyed at the appear- 
ing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, but also 
those who embrace his doctrine and follow his usages. 
For it is said they perish. " In them that perish." 
Now, if the man of sin will be destroyed and those 
who embrace his errors shall perish, will a man risk 
his reputation for intelligence and integrity by saying 
they are immortal ? How can they have a conscious 
existence after destruction and after they perish ? 
But why are they destroyed or do they perish ? Be- 
cause they receive not the truth that they might be 
saved. Saved from this destruction or perishing. 
My brethren, count me not an enemy because I pre- 
sent you with the truth. If I am an enemy for this 
production, you may count on Moses with all the 
prophets, and Jesus Christ with all his apostles, and 
God with all his truth as being your enemies. As to 
this great and important question, I am clearly in 
harmony with all these, and we all are opposed to your 
fallacy of fallacies ; and hope through our united 
efforts to expunge this error from the church and the 
world. I think all the good at least should vociferate, 
Amen and amen. 



TIMOTHY. 205 



I Timothy 6:9: " But they that will be rich, fall 
into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and 
hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and 
perdition." Some things are so evident that any at- 
tempt at elucidation might seem as a cloud upon 
the development. So it is with this statement of the 
Apostle Paul. Had he concentrated all the powers of 
human language to enunciate a truth, he could not 
express or round out the idea of the final extinction 
of the enemies of God better than he has done it in 
this scripture. The beauty and sublimity of the an- 
nouncement is complete. It seems as a deluge of 
influences to bear the victimized on its flood to an 
ocean of destruction, shoreless and fathomless. Con- 
template this faultless imagery, " They fall into 
temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and 
hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and 
perdition." Reader, allow me to pass on in silence, 
and leave this crystallized truth for silent, solemn 
contemplation. It seems as if an eternal verity di- 
rect from the thoughts of Omniscience was vibrating 
on the ear. The great majority of the human family, 
drunk with assignations of the devil, suffocated, 
drowned in destruction and perdition ! If St. Paul 
has not here announced the loss of conscious being 
for the incorrigible, language need not attempt 
another effort. 

Verse 12 : " Fight the good fight of faith ; lay hold 
on eternal life, whereunto thou art called." The idea 



206 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

here advanced is, if we have an eternal life we must 
struggle for it ; fight against the powers that exist, 
and oppose, and grasp as one drowning ; lay hold of 
eternal life. Consider, it is eternal life we are to seize 
or lay hold of. How absurd it is then to believe we 
have eternal life naturally or intuitively ! If we ever 
shall have immortality, we shall have to seek for it, 
fight for it, struggle for it ! 

Verse 16-: " Who only hath immortality, dwelling 
in light which no man can approach unto ; whom no 
man hath seen, nor can see ; to whom be honor and 
power everlasting. Amen." With such an announce- 
ment from the acknowledged word of God, how can 
men have the effrontery to say the vilest and most 
sordid of our race are immortal ! Does not the apos- 
tle here declare that God alone is immortal ? One 
thing is certain — either Paul was not orthodox on 
this subject, or those who declare the wicked are im- 
mortal are not orthodox. One affirms that God alone 
hath immortality ; the other, that every vile human 
being is immortal. Shall we ask which is right ? 

Verse 19 : " Laying up in store for themselves a 
good foundation against the time to come, that they 
may lay hold on eternal life." I should regard it as 
impious, to think God would give an eternal life that 
would not be happy, unless it might be an eternal pro- 
bation, which is an absurdity. The Scriptures evi- 
dently justify the assertion that none but the right- 
eous will lay hold on everlasting life, or conscious 
being. 



HEBREWS. 207 



Hebrews 2 : 14 : " Forasmuch as the children are 
made partakers of flesh and blood, he also him- 
self likewise took part of the same ; that through 
death he might destroy him that had the power of 
death, that is, the devil." I make not this quotation 
to prove that men are not immortal, but to prove the 
devil is not immortal. Here is a clear statement that 
the devil, who had the power of death, would be de- 
stroyed. Certainly there is no danger that any will 
resort to the same quibble in this case as they do in 
the case of man's destiny. They can not, in either 
case, consistently say the apostle means destroy 
happiness, for no one will be willing to believe he 
has much to destroy. At first view it would seem 
quite remarkable that Christ should assume a 
human body to destroy the devil. Yet it seems 
clearly implied, and will, on investigation, appear 
a fact. If, in the divine government, there was 
any thing that would render it inexpedient for 
Christ to destroy the devil before his incarnation, 
since his incarnation I think it can be justly in- 
ferred from Scripture that it is incumbent on him 
to destroy the fiend. I think it can be shown from 
the law of God, that there is an absolute necessity for 
the devil to be killed, and an absolute certainty that 
he will lose his conscious being in the judgment. 
Genesis 9:6: " Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by 
man shall his blood be shed ; for in the image of God 
made he man." Shedding of blood is another expres- 



208 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

sion for the taking of life, as will be seen by Leviticus 
24 : 21 : "And he that killeth a man shall surely be 
put to death." Then a just paraphrase of the passage 
from Genesis would be : Whoso killeth a man, by man 
shall he be killed. Thus it appears that the law of 
God requires that whoever kills a man, by man shall 
he be killed. The devil is called, by the Saviour, a 
murderer. Why ? Because he killed the entire hu- 
man family. Then, according to the requirements 
of the law, he must be killed by a man. It could not 
be expected that the destroyed should kill the de- 
stroyer ; nor was it possible for a mere man to kill 
the devil ; yet the law requires the devil — a mur- 
derer — to be killed by a man. Here would appear a 
reason for Christ's incarnation : " Forasmuch as the 
children are made partakers of flesh and blood, he 
also himself took part of the same." What for ? 
" That, through death, he might destroy him that had 
the power of death, that is, the devil." Thus Christ, 
by taking upon himself the human body, became the 
God-man, or a man ; and being a man, and the only 
man who could fulfill the requirement of the law, he 
assumes the responsibility of doing it. The only 
question that remains is, Will he do it ? We should 
have no reason to distrust, even had he not given any 
assurance. Read Matthew 5 : 17, 18: "Think not I 
am come to destroy the law or the prophets : I am 
not come to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say 
unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one 
tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be 
fulfilled." Thus we see the law of God required that 
the murderer should lose his life by the hand of man. 



HEBREWS. 209 

The devil, being a murderer, must die, if the require- 
ment of the law is complied with. There is but 
one human being in the universe that can fulfill this 
law, and that is the God-man. And he assures us, 
" he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill." I ask 
every student of the Bible, if there is not here a posi- 
tive revelation, and assurance from Christ that the 
devil — the destroyer of our race — shall die, be de- 
stroyed, become extinct ? If the evidence is so clear 
and positive in the Scriptures that the devil, the 
father of rebellion, is to be destroyed, think you it 
would be singular to find, in the same Scriptures, 
abundant evidence that his fellow-rebels — his follow- 
ers, his children — should die eternally ? The Bible is 
a unit on this question. Its whole tenor and revela- 
tion is one grand assurance that the enemies of God 
will finally be destroyed in the second death — become 
extinct. How beautifully, how gloriously, does this* 
view of Scripture justify the ways of God to his crea- 
tures ! Can any intelligence give a just reason why 
God should retain in his presence forever a scene 
upon which he says he can not look but with abhor- 
rence ? Dare any one intimate that he has any dis- 
position of hate, malice, or revenge to gratify ? Will 
it be, for example, to deter the holy from sin ? Is not 
their chief motive love ? Is the peace and the feli- 
city of the universe to be secured by the strong liga- 
ment of fear, dread ? My brother, have you not lost 
the first rudiment of your profession ? Brush away 
this dark spot from the horizon of your faith. Love 
is the pervading element of the universe, save in this 
rebellious clime. " God," in yonder future, which you 



210 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

so fondly anticipate, " shall wipe away all tears from 
your eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither 
sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more 
pain; for the former things are passed away." " No 
more pain" of body or mind ; no distracting cares or 
fears ; all is love and confidence. " The former things 
are passed away." Do you not see a glorious signifi- 
cance in this ? What things ? Certainly not any thing 
desirable, glorious ; but every thing undesirable. All 
impurity, all sin ; every thing that opposes, defiles, or 
harms. " Passed away." Whither? To some loath- 
some sphere, to be an eternal spectacle — monument 
of disgust ? No, there is not the least intimation of 
this in the revelation of God. Shall pass away. This 
is not man speaking, who has his locality, from which 
it would take but a small remove to pass away from 
him, from his circumscribed place and view ; but the 
omniscient and omnipresent God says the former 
things are passed away ; from him — from all his lov- 
ing creation. Whither ? Is there truth in Jehovah's 
declaration, "Are passed away " ? Then it can only 
be into oblivion — into complete extinction — nonen- 
tity. Why should man have ever thought the sinner 
immortal ? I challenge the world to produce a sen- 
tence from God's holy book that asserts it, save that, 
foul, deceptive falsehood of the chief foe of God and 
man, " Thou shalt not surely die." 

I can not forbear making a single remark on this 
law of life for life. The construction we give to, and 
the unavoidable inference we draw from, this state- 
ment, " Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall 
his blood be shed," gives additional weight, beauty, 



HEBREWS. 211 

and importance to the declaration of the Deity, 
" Without the shedding of blood there is no remis- 
sion of sin." How beautifully and forcibly is pre- 
sented to every contemplative mind, and especially 
to every devotional soul, this law of life for life ! The 
law of life for life, in the sin of taking life ; and the 
law of life for life, in the unspeakable gift of giving 
life. Well might the apostle exclaim, " Great is the 
mystery of godliness ; God, manifested in the flesh, 
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto 
the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up 
into glory." 

It is to be hoped no one will take exception to the 
construction we give the phrase, " Whoso sheddeth 
man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed," and 
say that it does not mean to take life or to kill. Al- 
low a quotation or two. Gen. 9:3,4:" Every moving 
thing that liveth shall be meat for you ; even as the 
green herb have I given you all things. But flesh, 
with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall 
ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will 
I require ; at the hand of every beast will I require 
it ; and at the hand of every man ; at the hand of 
every man's brother will I require the life of man. 
Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood 
be shed ; for in the image of God made he man." 
From this it is evident that Moses considered the 
blood of an animal, whether of beast or man, was the 
life thereof. Consequently, the shedding the blood 
of man was the taking the life of man, or killing the 
man. Then the devil was a murderer, for he had 
taken the lives of men. See how exactly this accords 



212 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

with the Saviour's teaching, Matthew 8 : 44: " Ye arc 
of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father 
ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, 
and abode not in the truth, because there was no 
truth in him." Thus we see the devil has shed the 
blood of men, and is a murderer, and shall be 
destroyed. 

Again, no one need object and say this law was 
given by God through Moses for the Jews alone, or 
for any other nationality or dispensation. It is true 
that if a nation enacts a law, its binding force will be 
within the limits of that nationality. It could not be 
expected to make laws for another nationality inde- 
pendent of it. So the law of God should be expected 
to be in force in his entire government, or at least to 
the limit he shall prescribe. Here we find a law in 
force at the time of Adam and of the flood, and 
republished by Moses centuries after to the entire 
human family — " Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by 
man shall his blood be shed." I mention this last 
section because the objection has already come to 
my hearing. 

The idea of the destruction of the devil is not 
peculiar to the above quotation alone. The same 
doctrine is conveyed in 1 John 3 : 15 : "Whosoever 
hateth his brother is a murderer, and ye know that 
no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." That 
is, hates his brother in the widest sense. Like Cain, 
having a disposition, whether the opportunity occurs 
or not. The fact stands prominent in God's word, 
" No murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." If 
he has none, we have no revelation from God that he 



HEBREWS. 213 

ever will have ; but we have abundant evidence that 
he will die, and is not immortal. Then he will die, 
lose his conscious being forever. " Jesus was mani- 
fested in the flesh that he might destroy the works of 
the devil." His work is not only manifested in mak- 
ing men disobedient and vile, but his first work was 
to make himself an adversary both to God and man. 
Then, if Jesus destroys the works of the devil, which 
included the work of making himself a devil, and 
does not destroy the devil himself, is it not evident 
that he will be an angel again, purified, and absolved 
from his Satanic character ? Much more evidence 
could be adduced on this topic, but I forbear. This 
is all-sufficient to show the devil not immortal ; and 
I am satisfied every candid, unprejudiced reader will 
be of the same mind. 

Permit me, however, to produce one more quota- 
tion on this point. It will be found in Rev. 20: 
7, 8, 9 : " And when the thousand years are ex- 
pired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and 
shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the 
four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather 
them together to battle : the number of whom is as 
the sand of the sea. And they went up on the 
breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of 
the saints about, and the beloved city : and fire came 
down out of heaven and devoured them." Devour 
means to eat up, to consume. In a former quotation 
we were taught that the wicked perished in the fires 
of the last day ; and in this we find the same wicked 
persons, with the devil, are devoured by fire coming 
down out of heaven. This, too. is after the resurrec- 



214 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

tion and the judgment, From this, is it not clear 
that the same identical fire devours ungodly men 
and the devil at the same time ? Men may twist 
and pervert as much as they please, they can not 
evade the truth that wicked men and devils are 
not immortal. Beyond this consumption we have 
no evidence of conscious being for wicked men or 
devils. 

Hebrews 10 : 16, 19 : " For if we sin willfully, after 
that we have received the knowledge of the truth, 
there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a 
fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation 
which shall devour the adversaries." This scripture 
is as clear and emphatic that wicked men and devils 
will be destroyed, as the passages recently brought 
forward. The sin here mentioned evidently is the 
sin of deliberate and continued apostasy ; the sin of 
him who ignores the redeeming sacrifice. Whatever 
the nature of this sin is, it is certain there is no sac- 
rifice provided for its absolution, but a fearful looking 
for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall de- 
vour the adversaries. What a fearful anticipation of 
judgment and burning indignation which shall devour 
the adversaries ! Such characters, dispossessed of all 
hope, seem to have something of a foretaste of their 
fearful doom : to be devoured according to the judg- 
ment of an incensed God, in his burning indignation. 
Does not this fearful language indicate — yes, posi- 
tively assure, a wasting away which, if not arrested, 
will eventuate in complete consumption, or non-ex- 
istence ? If this is not the just and legitimate de- 
duction, I confess I am incapable of understanding 
language. 



HEBREWS. 215 

Hebrews 12 : 29 : " For God is a consuming fire." 
If there were not another revelation from God that 
involved the destruction of his enemies, I should 
think this presumptive evidence would be sufficient 
to show they were not immortal. "God is a consum- 
ing fire." To consume what ? That which he ap- 
probates and loves ? Certainly not. Why should he 
destroy that with which he is complaisant ? No. He 
is a consuming fire to burn up all that is offensive to 
him ; all who oppose his government. He will not 
destroy any of his works which accomplish the end 
for which they were formed ; but it is reasonable and 
sure he will consume all that is in opposition to him. 
This truth should be inferred from the history of the 
three Hebrew children. Daniel 3 : 21-23 : "Then 
these three men were bound in their coats, their hosen, 
and their hats, and their other garments, and were 
cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. 
Therefore because the king's commandment was ur- 
gent, and the furnace was exceeding hot, the flame 
of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, 
Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, 
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound 
into the midst of the burning fiery furnace." Thus at 
the last God will save all that are in affinity with him 
and destroy all that oppose him. 



216 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 



James 4:12: " There is one lawgiver who is able 
to save and destroy." How wonderfully is this ex- 
pression freighted with meaning ! The author of all 
— of all individualities, all substances, of all orders 
and obligations ; the author of relationship and re- 
sponsibility ; the author of all law, natural, physical, 
mental and moral, justificatory and penal ; a lawgiver 
so endowed with wisdom as to give a code complete, 
meeting all exigencies ; so adjusted and arranged, if 
faithfully obeyed, as to produce and assure the great- 
est possible good and felicity to each, to all, in all 
their various orders and multiplied conditions and 
circumstances. In the event of disobedience to such 
a law, from such a lawgiver, what consequence could 
be anticipated . but destruction ? An infraction of 
such a code, how the vibrations of discord and confu- 
sion would be felt amid the whole ! Who can estimate 
the want of harmony and concord ? Collisions, rival- 
ry, infringement, and wrong would be experienced 
throughout. What a change ! Universal peace dis- 
rupted ; confidence displaced by fear ; love, wounded, 
sinks in feebleness to hate, and security yields to in- 
fringement. Direful changes ! Amid this chaos Om- 
niscience associates justice and love in fond, active 
embrace ; and mercy, with smiling, pitying, reconcil- 
ing features, spreads her wings over this wide-spread 
scene of antagonisms. A mediation is effected : grace 
offers pardon. The herald cries, Want of confidence 
has brought her countless multitude of ills to all. An 



JAMES. 217 

antidote is found on the easy, honorable terms of sor- 
row for the wanting confidence, and a full return to 
faith and love. Here comes the power to save and 
to destroy. A compliance with the terms assures 
complete salvation ; and will any demur to the com- 
plete destruction in case of aggravated disobedience? 
How can a complete harmony and universal peace 
be restored, but by the complete destruction of those 
incorrigible ? They freely fell and they must freely 
accept of the terms of salvation, or yield to the power 
of the Lawgiver to destroy. Will he do it ? Eternal 
veracity is pledged for it. As sure as universal peace 
and harmony can not be effected without it, and God's 
veracity preserved, the enemies of God will certainly 
be destroyed. Who, imbued with love, would rather 
eternal discord would reign, and fill eternity with the 
groans of the damned ? Perverted disposition ! shame 
on this professed orthodoxy of the age ! I pray God 
it may speedily fall into that abyss of darkness which 
it deserves ! 

James 5 : 19: "Brethren, if any of you do err from 
the truth, and one convert him ; let him know that 
he which converteth a sinner from the error of his 
ways, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a 
multitude of sins." " Shall save a soul from death." 
Can any one be so stupid as to think the apostle in- 
tended to teach that, if an individual who was instru- 
mental in the conversion of another, he would save 
such a one from physical or temporal death ? Show 
me such a man, and I will show you one who is just 
competent to believe the wicked immortal. Every 
intelligent person knows the apqstle did not refer to 



2l8 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

physical death ; he meant he should save a soul from 
the forfeiture of the purchased or resurrected life — ■ 
from the death of this life — from a death that will 
know no awakening. Can any other construction be 
justly given ? Then why will any continue to falsify 
the truth and pervert the word of God, by saying the 
finally impenitent will live forever, eternally ? 



PETER. 219 



I Peter 4 : 18 : " And if the righteous are scarcely 
saved, where will the sinner and the ungodly ap- 
pear ?" The answer is, they will appear in that state 
from which the righteous are saved. The inquiry 
then is, from what are they saved ? Not from tem- 
poral death, but from the death of the purchased life. 
How plain ! Who can be so dull as not to perceive 
the truth, as infinite wisdom reveals it ? 

In 2 Peter 2:12, the apostle again alludes to this 
subject : " But these, as natural brute beasts, made 
to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things 
they understand not ; and shall utterly perish in their 
own corruption." What language can possibly con- 
vey the doctrine of a complete loss of being to the 
wicked more plainly than the language here used ? 
The principle of decay or corruptibility being intro- 
duced into the human system, will inevitably produce 
in time death, or complete dissolution — destruction. 
The declaration is, they shall perish, be utterly de- 
stroyed, in this their own corruption. What can be 
more reasonable and philosophical than that such 
persons — so abandoned, so sordid, so vile, so lost to 
all reformation, as described in a former quotation — 
should perish in their own decay — corruption ? How 
can men, to evade the truth, so pervert the word of God 
as to say these vile characters will not perish in their 
corruption, but will live forever ? Is not t'his a reve- 
lation from God, on the most important subject ever 
presented for the contemplation of man ? If such 



220 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

men as Dick, Drew, Lee, and Mattison had labored as 
diligently and ingeniously to show men that they had 
already forfeited the purchased and resurrected life, 
and that there was no sacrifice for the second death, 
in my opinion there would millions of souls live an 
eternal life which now will die the second death, and 
thus lose forever all conscious being. Eternity alone 
will reveal the terrible consequences of this wide- 
spread delusion. I doubt not but that there are mil- 
lions of the strongest minds and deepest thinkers on 
earth to-day who are induced to hazard their eternal 
interest in consequence of the doubt this doctrine 
casts over their destiny, and the inconsistencies it 
fabricates through the entire revelation of God. If I 
can be made the humble instrument of lessening, in 
any degree, this universal flood of ruin, I shall be 
abundantly repaid for all the obloquy that may be 
heaped upon me for this unassuming publication. 

Again, verse 19: "These are wells without water, 
clouds that are carried with a tempest, to whom the 
mist of darkness is reserved forever." The apostle 
appears to tax the very powers of language to convey 
the idea of utter ruin or extinction. What idea should 
be drawn from the metaphor, " a well without water," 
but utter worthlessness ? — not answering at all the 
purpose for which it was dug ; or from clouds driven 
by a tempest, but a resistless vagueness of destiny ? 
What idea from the expression " to whom the mist 
of darkness is reserved forever" ? Does not this 
convey the idea of extinction, loss of being, nonenti- 
ty ? Worthless in probation, doomed to destruction 
in the judgment ? If the idea of immortality can be 



PETER. 221 

derived from such expressions, I confess myself inca- 
pable of understanding the force of language. 

2 Peter 3 : 5-7 : " For this they are willingly igno- 
rant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of 
old, and the earth standing out of the water and in 
the water : whereby the world that then was, being 
overflowed with water, perished : but the heavens and 
the earth which are now, by the same word are kept 
in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of judg- 
ment and perdition of ungodly men." For what did 
God send the flood in the time of Noah ? Was it not 
to destroy all the living on account of their wicked- 
ness ? Was not the earth purified by their perishing 
or being destroyed by the deluge ? Does not the apos- 
tle say that the preseut earth and heavens are reserved, 
kept in store, for the fires of the last day — that is, the 
day of judgment, the day of doom — to be purified by 
burning up the wicked, to be purified by fire, as it was 
formerly by water ? Does he not say the ungodly 
perish in this fire ? If they do not perish, or be con- 
sumed, do they not still live ? Was this fire to burn 
up the wicked, or their wickedness simply ? If the 
latter, is not the world cleansed from the wickedness, 
but the sinner, having his sins burned up, and not 
himself, would he not be a saint, saved by fire, and 
not by the blood of Jesus ? O men ! why will you 
thus pervert theword of God and involve yourselves 
in such intricacies ? Will you make the fires of hell 
people heaven with greater numbers than the blood 
of the Lamb ? Will you raise a rival note or song in 
glory worthy the fires of hell, which have brought us, 
apostates, from the abyss of woe to the celestial 



222 THE DESTINV OF MAN. 

glories of the Eternal ? Is not this the necessary 
sequence of your creed, that the wicked live forever? 
I am amazed at the stolidity and recklessness of good 
men. Why not rather believe God, " Thou shalt 
surely die" ? What can be a greater sacrilege than 
to so twist, turn, change, pervert, and murder lan- 
guage, to belie the whole truth of God to substantiate 
this one miserable falsehood of the devil as true — 
" Thou shalt not surely die" ? Of all the wonders 
that earth can produce, this is the culmination, that 
God by his servants should have used all the powere 
of language and metaphors of earth to reveal the des- 
tiny of the wicked as entire destruction, complete ex- 
tinction, and this entire announcement should be so 
turned, by the adroitness of the adversary and the 
learned ingenuity of men, as to teach the wicked are 
immortal ! No, " let God be true and every man a 
liar" who contradicts him. " The enemies of God 
shall be as the fat of lambs ; into smoke shall they 
consume away." So says the prophet of God. 

2 Peter 3 : 9, 10 : " The Lord is not slack concern- 
ing his promises, as some men count slackness ; but 
is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any 
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 
But the day of the Lord will so come as a thief in the 
night ; in the which the heavens shall pass away with 
a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fer- 
vent heat, the earth also and the works that are 
therein shall be burned up." God is not willing that 
men should perish, or he would not have given his 
Son to die for them. Jesus gave his life that man's 
life should not sink in death forever, should not perish 



PETER. 223 

eternally. If men will not repent, is it not clearly 
implied that they will perish i More ; is it not posi- 
tively stated here, and in many other places in the 
Bible, that they shall be burned up ? Does not the 
Saviour positively affirm it with his own mouth ? Is 
all this evidence to be set aside to make the devil 
truthful in his world-destroying falsehood, "Thou 
shalt not surely die" ? When the apostle affirms 
that God is not willing that any men should perish, 
does he not immediately add, " But the day cometh 
as a thief in the night" — suddenly — " when the hea- 
vens shall pass away with a great noise, and the ele- 
ments shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth also, 
and the works that are therein, shall be burned up" ? 
Is not the statement plain, The earth and all the 
works therein ? Is not the wickedness of the wicked 
the work of the devil and of men ? are not the wicked 
themselves the work of the devil ? Certainly ; for 
they are not the work of God. Holy men are the 
work of God. Will any, then, ask, Will not the right- 
eous, who are the work of God, share the same fate ? 
I answer, No ; for, in the first place, they are not the 
work of the devil ; in the second place, it is not cer- 
tain they will be on the earth at the time. 1 Thes- 
salonians 4 : 17 : " Then we that are alive and remain 
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, 
to meet the Lord in the air ; and so shall we ever be 
with the Lord." Why was the incident of the three 
Hebrew children, who walked through the furnace 
unhurt, having the form of the fourth like to the Son 
of God accompanying them, put on record, but for 
our comfort and consolation ? Do not the Scrip- 



224 THE DESTINY OF MAN 

tures say, God is a consuming fire ? To whom ? To 
those who are not like him ; but those who are like 
him will remain unhurt, though in his presence. The 
apostle's declaration will be verified ; the earth and 
all the works that are therein, including the wicked, 
who are the work of the devil, shall be burned up. 
When ? When the earth shall be on fire ; on the last 
day — the day of doom. 

I ask those who still affirm that the wicked are 
immortal, Have you any evidence that the wicked 
will not be on the earth at the time of this fire? 
Does not the apostle say this earth is reserved into 
the fires of the last day and the perdition of ungodly 
men ? Does not Christ say, in the end of the world 
his angels shall gather the tares to burn them ? Does 
not the revelator say, in the judgment, All whose 
names are not written in the book of life shall be 
cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death ? 
Is it not said elsewhere, that this is the fire in which 
the ungodly shall perish ? With these scriptures 
fresh in your mind, will you say the wicked are im- 
mortal ? Are not every one of these individuals per- 
sons who have been resurrected ? Is it not their re- 
surrected life that is burned up ? Will any be so 
blasphemous as to deny all this and say, The sinner 
was not burned up, but his sins ? Will you still 
study to introduce another saviour than Jesus ? 
Have you turned infidel, because your theory de- 
mands it ? Will you still continue to advocate Uni- 
versalism, " Thou shalt not surely die" ? Will you 
not begin to think yourselves deluded, and believe 
that at least the shadow of that mist of darkness, 



PETER. 225 

which shall at last enshroud the wicked has fallen 
upon you ? I would call upon you in thunder tones, 
Awake to righteousness, and sin not by defaming the 
Sovereign Ruler of the universe. He says, " Thou 
shalt surely die ;" " The soul that sinneth, it shall die." 



226 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 



I John I : 8 : " He that committeth sin is of the 
devil ; for the devil sinneth from the beginning." 
For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that 
he might destroy the " works of the devil." Is not 
this a positive statement that the sinner is the work 
of the devil ? " For this purpose Jesus was mani- 
fested in the flesh ;" that is, incarnated. Why was he 
manifested in the flesh ? " To destroy the works of 
the devil." Will he accomplish his mission ? As- 
suredly he will. Then will he not certainly destroy 
wicked men, since they are the principal part of the 
work of the devil ? Certainly, if there is truth in 
this word. If any affirm that God will not destroy 
the sinner, but his sins, does not such a one confess 
himself a Universalist ? Certainly ; for if he says 
Jesus was incarnated to destroy the work of the 
devil, and that work was men's sins, and not men 
themselves, is he not a restorationist ? Certainly. I 
ask my opponents, which horn of the dilemma will 
you take — to side with the apostle, and say the 
wicked will be destroyed and are not immortal, or 
side with Universalism, and say, all sinners are re- 
stored, they are immortal? "Thou shalt not surely 
die." May it not be positively affirmed that they 
who say the wicked are immortal are Universalists ? 
The apostle declares that Jesus was manifested in 
the flesh to destroy the works of the devil. My op- 
ponents will not dare to deny this ; neither will they 
dare to deny that the work of the devil is all manner 



, JOHN. 227 

of uncleanness, sin, and every thing that disqualifies 
men for heaven. Now, if Jesus, by his being mani- 
fested in the flesh, will destroy all this work of the 
devil, will he not destroy all men's unfitness for 
heaven ? Then, are they not restored to their origi- 
nal purity and fitness for happiness ? The men who 
believe this, that Jesus will, through his mission to 
earth, destroy all the sins of men, and not destroy the 
sinner at the same time, are they not Universalists ? 
The conclusion is inevitable. But the apostle affirms 
that Jesus will destroy the work of the devil — that is, 
all the work of the devil — and as this includes the sin- 
ner as his. work, he will also be destroyed. If de- 
stroyed in the last day, he will lose all conscious be- 
ing, he is not immortal. I hope my opponents will 
see that it is better to abandon an error than to im- 
bibe a thousand others to cover up the one. 

1 John 2 : x6, 17: "For all that is in the world, 
the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the 
pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world. 
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: 
but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." 
How could an expression be more full and complete, 
to convey an utter demolishment of all that is offen- 
sive to God? The whole demoralization of man, the 
lust of the body and all the unholy ambitions and 
pride of his soul, all of him that is fallen, unholy, and 
impure, shall pass away. Where ? Can you find in 
the whole universe a place more fit than this planet, 
cursed of God for man's sake, and where man dis- 
rupted the ties that bound him to his Creator ? 
Where rebellion against the just government of a 



228 THE DESTINY OF MA$. 

merciful God for six thousand years has been ram- 
pant ? What object could there be to desecrate an- 
other locality of God's universal empire for the ex- 
istence of such a sordid, vicious, and corrupt mass of 
existences ? This earth is probably the only scene 
of rebellion in existence. If sinning man is to live 
eternally, why purify this planet for the righteous ? 
Why not leave the ingrates in this fallen sphere ? 
These are proper thoughts for those who think the 
wicked immortal. They might serve to win them to 
a true understanding and appreciation of God's reve- 
lation to man. 

i John 3:15: "Whosoever hateth his brother is a 
murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eter- 
nal life abiding in him." If he has not eternal life 
abiding in him, when will he have ? I suppose this 
passage means that he that has broken the command- 
ment, " Thou shalt not kill," has forfeited his pur- 
chased life ; and as long as he remains a murderer 
unpardoned, he sustains this relation as having for- 
feited the resurrected life, and if it "remains forfeited, 
it must die ; consequently he has not a life that will 
not end, nor has he a claim to one. 

5 : 11, 12 : "And this is the record, that God hath 
given eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He 
that hath the Son hath life ; he that hath not the Son 
hath not. life." How? The race had forfeited their 
claim to life through the sin of Adam, and it would 
have been an eternal forfeiture, had it not been for 
the gift of the Son of God. Jesus was manifested in 
the flesh to give his life, that this death, incurred by 
Adam, should not be an everlasting death ; but that 



JOHN. 229 

there should be a resurrection from it. Now, this is 
the record or revelation, that God hath in this man- 
ner given eternal life, and this life is in his Son. A 
life that will be enjoyed eternally, if not forfeited 
again by sin. A life as free from death as was 
Adam's life before he transgressed. This life is 
had, and can be retained, only through the death 
of the Son ; but if lost again by disobedience, then 
it is only to be retrieved and enjoyed eternally 
by faith and trust in the atonement. " He that hath 
the Son" — that is, hath the benefit of his death and 
resurrection — " hath life ;" hath the purchased life, 
which he will enjoy forever in the resurrected life, 
if it is not again forfeited by sin. But in case of a 
forfeiture again of this purchased life, he has no 
claim for its perpetuation ; and not having any inte- 
rest by faith and trust in the atonement, this resur- 
rected life remaining forfeited, must die the second 
death, and is thus extinguished forever. Thus " he 
that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the 
Son hath not life." This is particularly to be noticed, 
that in this exposition of the apostle there is not the 
slightest allusion to a happy or a miserable life. It 
is simply life or conscious being ; existence or no ex- 
istence. With this fair and only truthful exegesis 
of this scripture, what foundation can there be for 
the doctrine of an eternal conscious being for the 
wicked ? Does not the clear, positive revelation of 
God show that the idea of the immortality of the in- 
corrigible is fallacious ? Why will men, and learned 
men too, publish for the doctrine of God the manifest 
teaching of the devil ? 



230 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

Verse 16 : " There is a sin unto death : I do not 
say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is 
sin : and there is a sin not unto death." There is a 
sin unto death : this can have no reference to tempo- 
ral death. It is unquestionably the sin against the 
Holy Ghost, which has no forgiveness in this world, 
or in the world to come. If it is a complete and 
eternal forfeiture of the resurrected life, how can he 
have a resurrection from its death ? For there re- 
mains no more sacrifice for sin. I can not under- 
derstand how men could be led to ignore all these 
evidences of the final destruction of the rebellious to 
believe in the one statement of the adversary, "Thou 
shalt not surely die." 



JUDE. 231 



Jude 10-12 : "But these speak evil of those 
things which they know not : but what they know 
naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they cor- 
rupt themselves. Woe unto them ! for they have 
gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the 
error of Balaam for reward, and perish in the gainsay- 
ing of Core. These are spots in your feast of charity, 
when they feast with you, finding themselves with- 
out fear : clouds they are without water, carried 
about with winds ; trees whose fruit withereth, with- 
out fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots ; raging 
waves of the sea, foaming out their, own shame ; 
wandering stars, to whom are reserved the mist of 
darkness forever." If this effort of the apostle does 
not convey the final destruction or extinction of the 
enemies of God, he, if he were now alive, need not 
make another attempt. He represents these charac- 
ters as wandering stars, having left their orbits and 
let loose from all wholesome attraction, for whom is 
reserved the mist of darkness forever ; the loss of all 
light, heat, or genial influence. If this does not con- 
vey the idea of extinction, oblivion, it would be im- 
possible to find a metaphor that would do it. Again, 
the wicked are represented by a tree whose leaves 
and fruit were withered, without fruit ; twice dead — 
dead in the natural death, and dead in the second 
death, or death of the resurrected life, and, that there 
should remain no hope of another life, he adds, and 
plucked up by the roots. Is there any hope for such 



232 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

a tree, for such a character ? Is not this the uniform 
teaching of the entire Scriptures ? Will any one of 
my opponents affirm that he justly infers from this 
declaration of the apostle the least evidence for the 
doctrine of the immortality of the impure, of the 
transgressor ? Nay more, will my opponents say 
that such an idea can be drawn from any expression 
of our blessed Saviour, his prophets or apostles ? 
If he can, let it be produced. If not, confess your 
error, and hereafter proclaim this truth as it is found 
in God's word, " The wicked shall be punished with 
everlasting destruction." I thank God " his mercy 
endureth forever." I rejoice that the forbearance of 
God is not as circumscribed as the forbearance of 
man. But few men submit patiently to such traduc- 
tion. My prayer is, that " the long-suffering, for- 
bearance, and goodness of God" may lead those that 
have traduced him to repentance. Having reviewed 
the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, and all the Epistles 
to the various .churches, and having quoted every 
allusion in them to this subject, the destiny of the 
wicked,, and having candidly given our views of each 
in its rotation, I cheerfully leave the whole with the 
candid judgment of every reader, hoping and believ- 
ing that each will come to the same conclusion as 
myself. As for myself, I honestly confess that I am 
unable to discover the least evidence that the ene- 
mies of God are to live forever. Neither am I able 
to understand any one text to lean that way, but by 
perversion or evident misconstruction. 



REVELATION. 233 



We will now give our attention to the review 
of the book of Revelation. The first intimation of 
this all-absorbing question will be found in 3:5: 
" He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in 
white raiment ; and I will not blot out his name 
out of the book of life, but I will confess his name 
before my Father and his angels." This plainly im- 
plies that the names of those who do not overcome 
will be blotted out of the book of life. If this does 
not convey the idea of loss of conscious being, I do 
not know how it could be expressed. Mark the ex- 
pression, I will blot out ; implying that they had 
been entitled to, and in the enjoyment of, a life which, 
if it should not be forfeited, would be perpetuated 
eternally. 

When the name is blotted out of the book of 
life, is there any indication that it will be registered 
elsewhere ? Men may canvass the fact whether there 
is a real book of record or not. It matters not 
whether it is believed or disbelieved, this simile is 
used with a significance. If there is no real book of 
record, it would indicate a reference to God's remem- 
brance. If the names of the wicked are dropped 
from God's remembrance, I would be sure of their 
extinction, if from no other proof. If they are blot- 
ted from the book of life, as a record of life, I am 
equally assured they fall into death, lose life or con- 
scious being, and so can never be immortal. It is 
the easiest thing in the world to cavil with a state- 



234 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

merit, when it might be very difficult to propound a 
more reasonable and philosophical theory. If any 
man can prove that the wicked are immortal from 
this scripture, I ask it in full. I wish every person, 
whether learned or unlearned, when they presume to 
think or say that the language of the Lord Jesus 
Christ or of his inspired servants does not mean 
what it imports, would calmly consider that God is 
omniscient and understood language, at the time 
these declarations were written, quite as well as they 
do now, with all their acumen, learning, and sophistry. 
If men were possessed of a little more humility and 
real honesty, I think the word of life would not be so 
marred and mutilated — its parts would be more con- 
sistent with the whole ; its supposed antagonisms 
would melt into simplicity, harmony, and symmetri- 
cal beauty and significance. The Bible would be one 
stupendous whole of ethics, harmonizing with itself, 
and coinciding with its Author ; a transcript of the 
Deity. Whence come these multifarious creeds ? 
Come they from a unit ? No ; they come from a 
mutilated, murdered, disintegrated whole. How? By 
assuming that the interpreter knows more about the 
force, propriety, and law of language than its author, 
though he be the omniscient God. Shame on such 
audacity ! I wish men would read oftener and with 
a greater solemnity this paragraph of St. John the 
revelator, 22 : 18, 19 : " For I testify unto every man 
that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, 
If any man shall add unto these things, God shall- add 
unto him the plagues that are written in this book : 
and if any man shall take away from the words of the 



REVELATION. 2$$ 

book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part 
out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and 
from the things which are written in this book." If 
all would read this awfully solemn declaration and 
ponder its wonderful significance, there would be less 
flippancy of remark and a more studied adherence to 
its spirit and development. The Bible, the inspired 
word of God, means what it says. 

Revelation 5 : 13 : "And every creature which is 
in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and 
such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard 
I saying, Blessing, and honor, and power, and glory 
be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto 
the Lamb, forever and ever." This appears to be a 
scene after the time of the restitution of all things. 
Is it not truthful ? Does not the apostle declare he 
heard all the creatures in heaven and earth and un- 
der the earth ascribing honor and glory to the 
Lamb forever and ever ? If all the creatures then in 
existence were praising God, think you the devil and 
his children were among them ? If they had not be- 
come extinct, John in his vision must have seen them, 
and they must have been adoring and worshiping 
God, and would continue to do so forever. Ye advo- 
cates for the immortality of the wicked, which will 
you have — the devil and his followers purified by the 
fires of the last day and introduced into the new 
Jerusalem, or have them, as the Bible declares, " con- 
sumed by fire from God," " burnt up in the fires of 
the last day" ? Will any be so perverse as to say the 
devil and his followers were in hell, and not in heaven 
or earth ? Will such, from the word of God, tell me 



236 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

where the fires of hell are located ? Can such 
inform me of any other hell than the fires of the 
last day, in which the Bible says the wicked will per- 
ish, be destroyed, burned up, be utterly consumed ? 
any other hell than the fire which came down from 
God out of heaven, and which God says devoured 
the devil and all his coadjutors ? If you in your 
audacious wisdom know more than the spirit that in- 
spired the apostles, and succeed in informing an 
anxious world of another hell, I ask you, Will it not 
be devoid of any occupants ? For Jesus says all the 
wicked in the judgment will be burned up. The 
apostles say the same thing ; the prophets say 
the same thing ; St. John says that fire will come 
down out of heaven, in the judgment, and con- 
sume all the enemies of God. Why do you wish 
to find or locate another hell when there are no devils 
or wicked men to burn ? Ye over-wise, when will you 
learn wisdom ? When will you learn that you really 
know less than the omniscient God ? Uninformed 
men would, from your flippancy, think you dictated 
the truths of revelation, and taught the Almighty 
wisdom. I would counsel for you modesty ; for God 
will certainly hold your bombastic wisdom in derision. 
I rejoice that the Saviour of mankind is not possess- 
ed with such a spirit as many of his professed, pomp- 
ous followers ; who would act the part of the dog in 
the manger — though they make loud pretensions to 
piety, manifest but little, if any, of the true spirit of 
Christianity ; but would rather ostracize a true lover 
of his Redeemer, because he loves and is a student 
of the Bible, and dares to believe the truths of reve- 



REVELATION. 237 

laticn. Allow me again to remind you God says, 
"Thou shalt surely die," and the devil says, "Thou 
shalt not surely die." You may proclaim the creed 
of the devil ; I will as faithfully declare the doctrine 
of God. 

Rev. 14: 9-1 1 : "And the third angel followed 
them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship 
the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his 
forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the 
wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out with- 
out mixture into the cup of his indignation ; and he 
shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the 
presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of 
the Lamb : and the smoke of their torment ascendeth 
up forever and ever : and they shall have no rest day 
nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and 
whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." This 
is one of the few passages relied upon to prove the 
immortality of the wicked. I confess, if there is a 
passage in the Bible which would seem to favor this 
idea, it would be this. If, on investigation, this should 
be found to teach this doctrine, it would stand isolat- 
ed and alone, antagonistic to the repeated and clear 
avowals of God, of his Son, his patriarchs, prophets, 
and apostles. In our critical notice let us be candid 
and unprejudiced, lest, by formerly entertained views, 
we compel this scripture to teach what God did not 
design to teach, and has never taught. First, these 
characters, which are represented as errorists, it is 
said, " shall drink of the wine of God's wrath." Did 
you ever contemplate thi.s expression ? The wine, 
not the grape ; but the pure pulp or juice — the virtue, 



238 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

the strength of the vine. The wine of God's wrath ; 
his wrath not in the least abated with lenity ; not 
mixed with the slightest tincture of love, mercy, or 
compassion ; the wrath, the ire, the vengeance of an 
Almighty God, poured into his cup of incensed indig- 
nation, and poured out without mixture and without 
measure upon a frail worm of this world, whose life, 
whose vital spark, the merest mote that floats in the 
sunbeam can destroy or quench : to drink — yes, live 
forever to drink. Absurdity unparalleled ! You ad- 
vocates of the immortality of the wicked ! you shame 
the devil and utter falsehoods he could scarce invent, 
and attain a degree in crime to which he could not 
aspire. Blush in the presence of the prince of dark- 
ness, whose steps you have far outsped ! Is not God's 
wrath equal to his power ? And yet you affirm that 
frail, feeble man, whose breath is in his nostrils, shall 
endure the vengeance and wrath of an Almighty God, 
who, in a moment, could speak a universe into being. 
I am sure you know not what you affirm ; that you 
have not realized the extent of your delusion. It is 
true God says the wicked shall drink of this cup ; and 
is not this sufficient for your perverted tastes ? When 
God's wrath is endured, and man sinks into utter ruin, 
and God's justice is satisfied, and his law honored, 
will you step beyond God's claim, and impiously tar- 
nish his justice, truth, and mercy ? Ye who speak in 
tones of horror, beyond what the chief spirit of evil 
ever enunciated, tell me what feature of infinite jus- 
tice requires such a draught of eternal misery ? Tell 
me how it is compatible with God's oft-repeated de- 
claration, " The goodness and mercy of God endureth 



REVELATION. 239 

forever " ? Tell me how the love of God, so pure, so 
measureless, so infinite, could permit it ? How does 
this accord with God's eternal truth, " The soul that 
sinneth, it shall die " ? Make not one attribute of 
God destroy the rest. The attributes of the Almigh- 
ty will exist unabridged and entire, notwithstanding 
the learned sophistry and false logic of men, or ma- 
chinations of the adversary. God does not say these 
wicked men will be drinking this cup of wrath eter- 
nally ; he merely says they shall drink it ; shall be 
tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of 
angels and the Lamb. In many parts of the Scrip- 
tures they are said to be burned up in this fire, and 
how can they be consumed with fire without torment ? 
Can any be so sordid and groveling in their views 
as to suppose that holy, happy angels, and the Lamb, 
and justified men, could be eternally happy, when such 
a scene of indescribable misery of untold millions of 
rational beings was acted in their presence every mo- 
ment of their eternal existence ? Would it comport 
with the holiness and love of God to hang such a 
picture in the galleries of heaven, let alone the abyss 
of torments it represents ? Tell it not in the regions 
of the prince of the power of the air, lest the arch- 
fiend be humbled with the orthodoxy of men ! 

In the second place, there is not the slightest inti- 
mation, in the whole paragraph, of the immortality of 
the wicked ; but the opposite idea is apparent. This 
phrase, "And the smoke of their torment ascendeth 
up forever," can not be wrung into the support 
of this doctrine, however- the over-anxious may wish 
to do it. It is contrary to all philosophy and expe- 



24O THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

rience, that the smoke of any substance can arise 
without the wasting of that substance. The very 
fact that it is said the smoke of the wicked does arise, 
is proof positive that they are consuming, and will 
soon cease to burn, though the consequences may be 
eternal. It would not be entirely unphilosophical to 
conceive that the smoke of their torments might as- 
cend forever, even when their miseries might very 
soon be understood to' cease. But we are not driven 
to such an extremity to avoid the conclusion, the tor- 
ments of the damned will last eternally. What is the 
true meaning of the term, forever ? It seldom means 
eternal duration. It never means more than this : the 
longest period given to any particular event. For in- 
stance, I wish to convey the title to a piece of pro- 
perty to another ; I say in the instrument I warrant 
and defend forever. I do not mean eternally. To de- 
fend it for twenty years would be sufficient, in ordi- 
nary circumstances, to acquire title by possession 
Again, under the Jewish theocracy, a man could sell 
his services to another until the jubilee ; and if at 
that time he chose not to take his freedom, he could 
sell his services and the services of his family for- 
ever. But when the grand jubilee came, he and his 
family went free, whether he wished to or not. Thus 
we see the forever here means only down to the grand 
jubilee ; and, in the scripture we are considering, it 
can mean no more than this, that the "smoke of the 
torments of the lost would arise just so long as they 
were being consumed. Of course they would be tor- 
mented during this time. 

Allow me to quote one more passage to show that 



REVELATION. 2^ I 

we have given the true construction of the term for- 
ever and ever, as it is a stumbling-block to many. I 
will refer you to one fire that occurred over two thou- 
sand years ago, and was extinguished that many years 
since. Isaiah 34 : 7-1 1 : " And their land shall be 
soaked with blood, and their dust be made fat with 
fatness. For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, 
and the year of recompenses for the controversy of 
Zion. And the streams thereof shall, be turned into 
pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the 
land thereof shall be burning pitch. It shall not be 
quenched night nor day ; the smoke thereof shall 
go up forever : from generation to generation it 
shall be waste ; none shall pass through it forever." 
No one will pretend that the prophet Isaiah told a 
falsehood, though the land of Idumea was burned 
centuries since, and the fires went out centuries ago: 
when they had consumed all that was combustible in 
the land. So it will be in the fires of the last day, 
which will produce the torments and extinction of. the 
wicked, and consume all that offends. Then this earth 
will be purified, and we shall have, as prophesied by 
the revelator, a new heaven and earth, in which will 
dwell righteousness. 

Thus we see this scripture which the advocates 
for the immortality of the ungodly quote so boasting- 
ly to substantiate their doctrine, does not bear the 
semblance of proof in that direction. I only won- 
der that any would ever have thought of twisting it 
to such a purpose. Before leaving this text entirely, 
I would like to refer the reader to a few scriptures to 
show that forever means merely a set or definite or 



242 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

limited duration : Deuteronomy 4 : 40 ; 12 : 28 ; 13 : 
16 ; 15 : 17 ; 23 : 3-6 ; 29 : 29 ; Joshua 14:9; 1 Samuel 
2 : 30 ; 20 : 23, 42 ; 27 : 12 ; 28 : 2 ; 2 Samuel 7:16; 
1 Kings 1:31; 2 : 33, 45. In none of these does the 
word forever mean unending duration. Very many 
other texts could be presented. 

Revelation 20 : 4-10 : " And I saw thrones, and 
they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto 
them : and I saw the souls of them that were be- 
headed for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of 
God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither 
his image, neither had received his mark upon their 
foreheads, or on their hands ; and they lived and 
reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest 
of the dead lived not again until the thousand years 
were finished. This is the first resurrection : on such 
the second death hath no power, but they shall be 
priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with 
him a thousand years. And when the thousand years 
are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 
and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in 
the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to 
gather them to battle : the number of whom is as the 
sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth 
of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints 
about, and the beloved city : and fire came down out 
of heaven, and devoured them." I quote this entire, 
because it is important, it being the last scene of 
this probationary world, We see the righteous dead 
resurrected to live with Christ during the millennium 
or the thousand years of rest. This is called the 
first resurrection. And over such as participate in 



REVELATION. 243 

it the second death hath no power ; that is, they 
shall die no more. At the end of the thousand 
years the rest of the dead, the wicked, are raised, 
and their number being so multitudinous, com- 
prising the entire opposition to the government of 
God, the devil goes forth to deceive them still, 
making them believe they were able to capture the 
camp of the saints, which they compass with un- 
diminished hate, and the spirit of inspiration informs 
us that " Fire came down from God out of heaven, and 
devoured them." Understand, in this assemblage are 
congregated all the enemies of God, men and devil. 
In this last effort of this concentrated opposition 
to take the camp of the saints of God and the be- 
loved city, the entire rebel host are consumed by fire 
from God out of heaven. This is the finale of the 
wicked. This is the last account we have of them ; 
and what could we have more ? The whole revelation 
that God has been pleased to give of them converges in 
the solemn, awful, and positive fact that they are com- 
pletely consumed, destroyed. What discourse would 
be desirable or profitable on non-existence, oblivion, 
nonentity ? That this destiny is clearly set forth 
through the entire Scriptures, these quotations will 
attest. One prophet says they " shall be ashes under 
the soles of righteous' feet ;" another says, " They," 
the wicked, being represented under the figure of 
stubble, " shall be burned up, so that it " (the fire) 
" shall leave them neither root nor branch." Again, 
another says, " They shall be consumed by fire com- 
ing down from God out of heaven ;" another repre- 
sents them " as drowned in a flood of wrath," as being 



244 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

" swept away by a tempest of God's indignation and 
fury." The Saviour says they shall "in the end of 
the world be burned up," "destroyed," ''swept away 
by a flood," shall die. Each apostle says, " they shall 
be destroyed," "burned up," "shall perish." Other 
prophets say, " They shall be as a thing of naught ;" 
"They shall be as though they had not been ;" that 
" They shall consume away ;" that " They shall be as 
the fat of lambs, they consume away, into smoke shall 
they consume away." These various statements are 
repeated again and again. Figures, similes, parables, 
nature in all its forms, animate and inanimate, are 
freely used by God and his servants to convey the 
destiny of the godless as being destruction, extinc- 
tion, nonentity ; and, as if by emphasis to make it 
more positively assured, every term found in human 
language to convey decomposition, destruction, and 
death, is used by God and his servants to con- 
vey the certain destiny of. the wicked as not immor- 
tal. And yet, notwithstanding all this, men of learn- 
ing, clergymen, doctors of divinity, choose to ignore 
all these teachings and labor most arduously to pervert 
the language used by inspiration, and to turn the 
simple, clear, and positive declarations of the Saviour 
and his apostles from their evident and legitimate 
meaning, to make truthful the deceptive falsehood of 
the devil, the foe of God and man, " Thou shalt not 
surely die." Should we not wonder at the patience ot 
God ? The more I contemplate this theme, the more 
I am astounded at the views learned and good men 
have on this important subject. It appears they at- 
tach to the divine character traits more discreditable 



REVELATION. 245 

than any we ascribe to the devil. They ascribe to 
the devil the sin of destroying the happiness of man 
in this life ; and they charge God with destroying the 
happiness of the sinner through all eternity ; and 
they charge God, in addition to this loss of happiness, 
with inflicting a misery which is indescribable and 
illimitable, as a punishment. According to this, who 
is the greatest tormentor of man ? The one gives 
man the loss- of happiness for disobedience, the other 
inflicts for the same disobedience eternal misery and 
torture. No one thinks of charging the devil with a 
worse intent than to destroy man's allegiance to his 
Maker, to turn his obedience into disobedience, his 
love into hate. This the devil accomplishes in man. 
What intention do our opponents ascribe to the 
righteous God ? Listen with astonishment. With 
the intention of inflicting eternal agonies in a lake 
of fire. Who inflicts the greater misery ? I tremble to 
write such thoughts ; yet you, my opponents, believe 
and teach these terrible thoughts all the while. Why 
will you charge your Maker with that you would not 
charge the prince of evil ? However deserving the 
penalty annexed to a law, the lawgiver in reality 
gives the punishment. If there was no lawgiver, 
there would be no penalty. Where there is no law, 
there is no infraction. The law and its penalty must 
come from the law-maker. Disobedience comes from 
another source. Indirectly or directly, the disobe- 
dience to the divine law comes from the adversary, 
the devil ; the penalty, or the consequence, comes 
from God. It is useless to affirm the law-maker is 
not the author of the penalty, as well as the law. 



246 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

The penalty is either just or it is unjust. If a penalty 
is unjust, cruel, vindictive, do we not justly charge 
the law-maker who annexes the penalty with the 
excess, the injustice ? Why not also with the penalty 
that is just? Both have the same author. Then, is 
not God the author of all penalty annexed to his 
laws ? Then, if it is true, directly or remotely, that 
the devil is the author of man's disobedience, want of 
love to God, and his hatred to the divine law, and 
possibly no more, will any man deliberately charge 
his Maker with being the author of all the excruciat- 
ing miseries of untold millions of intelligences in the 
lake of fire and brimstone eternally ? Will man 
charge God with that he would not, and can not, 
charge the adversary ? Will man make his Maker 
more vindictive and cruel than he would make the 
devil ? Will you ask in what respect ? You charge 
the devil with making men disobedient and hateful, 
and charge God with inflicting a misery which no 
finite mind can conceive or language portray. To 
say nothing about the justice or injustice of this, you 
nevertheless charge your Maker with it. Now, let us 
look a little to the character of the act you charge 
upon your Maker, and judge from it whether the 
charge is true or false. A debtor should not be obli- 
gated for more than his just debts ; the usurper, for 
more than reparation for the wrong ; a criminal, 
for more than his crime. Apply this principle to 
the question now under consideration. The sinner 
has made an infraction of the divine law, which God 
says is a sin against his own life. Now, according to 
every principle of justice, human or divine, can he or 



REVELATION. 247 

should he forfeit more than his life ? This is the an- 
nexed penalty by God. Less or more, would it not 
be unjust? Will any console himself by saying his 
doctrine makes the requirement of God less than tak- 
ing life, when he gives a life of eternal torments ? 
Will any seek a shelter under such a delusion ? 
Suppose a man having a constitution which reason- 
ably promises the enjoyment of forty years of life, 
but for crime was sentenced to death within a month. 
Would the law of God or man justify the execution 
of the law in keeping such a man the forty years his 
constitution would give him, in exquisite tortures ? 
If he should do it, would not every sane individual 
say the executive was worse than a brute ? Certain- 
ly ; and justly. Will any man then charge his Creator 
as being infinitely worse than a brute ? Does not 
the advocate for the immortality of the sinner de- 
clare this, every time he publishes his doctrine that 
God has constituted the sinner immortal in his sin — 
when God says the soul that sinneth, it shall die ? 

It is said in Romans 14 : 1 1, "As I live, saith the 
Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and confess to 
God." Confess the righteousness of God. Think 
you the sinner, after he had weitered, if such a 
thing was possible, in the lake of fire ten thousand 
years, would look up and say, Righteous art thou, 
O God ; for thou hast given me this protracted 
life in misery, when you promised death ! I thank 
thee, O Sovereign of the universe, for this commuta- 
tion of my punishment. Preposterous! My brethren, 
do you not see the absurdity of your position, the 
fallacy and wickedness of your doctrine ? The truth 



248 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

is, man received from his Maker life, and as a moral 
being he had a test of obedience. This test, or con- 
dition of being, was, if obedient he should live, that 
is, inimitably, and if disobedient he should die, that 
is, lose his life ; how long ? Evidently forever, with- 
out a redemption. The circumstances of man's de- 
reliction were such, being accomplished through de- 
ception and fraud, that his Maker palliated the offense 
so far as to substitute the death of another life, which, 
though dying, had inherent almighty power to sun- 
der the fetters of death and rise triumphant from 
this temporary imprisonment. Thus through this 
substituted death, and this triumphant resurrection 
from the same, man has a new, purchased, resurrect- 
ed life, which will be everlasting, provided it shall 
not be forfeited by further disobedience, as the natu- 
ral life was forfeited and lost by the sin of Adam. 
Should this new, purchased, and resurrected life be 
forfeited by individual sin, and not regained through 
the blood of the everlasting covenant, this forfeiture 
must of necessity be eternal, as we have no promise 
of another sacrifice for sin. Then, how can a sinner, 
resurrected as such, have a resurrection from this 
second death when Jesus has left the mediatorial 
throne and left him in the power of this death ? If 
his natural death had been eternal, but for the death 
and resurrection of the Son of God, how much more 
shall the second death be eternal, since there is no 
more sacrifice for sin ? If man in the judgment 
comes under the power of the second death, and 
thus loses his life forever, what reason has the learn- 
ed or unlearned to say, that such a man will live 



REVELATION. 249 

eternally, or is immortal ? The fallacy is so apparent 
it would seem, that an individual of common sagacity 
would be inexcusable for entertaining it. 

If the penalty for Adam's disobedience was the 
loss of happiness, I ask, Why did Adam die a natural 
death ? And if Adam's natural death was not the 
penalty for his first disobedience, I ask, why did 
Christ die ? Was it not needless ? Do you not see 
the wickedness and absurdity of saying that man's 
penalty for sin is simply the loss of happiness ? No, 
the loss of life or conscious being was the promised 
penalty, " Thou shalt surely die ;" and that this 
death should not be surely meted out, and that it 
might not be eternal, God pledges his Son to die that 
man might live. If then man loses his conscious be- 
ing in the natural death through the disobedience of 
Adam, how can he fail to lose all conscious being in 
the second death which is to be the penalty of indi- 
vidual sins ? As those falling under the power of the 
second death have no promise of a Saviour, by what 
means will they be resuscitated ? Until these ques- 
tions can be satisfactorily answered from the word of 
God, it is nothing short of blasphemy to say that the 
sinner is immortal. 

Rev. 20 : 12-15: "And I saw the dead, small 
and great, stand before God ; and the books were 
opened : and another book was opened, which is 
the book of life : and the dead were judged out 
of those things written in the books, according to 
their works. And the sea gave up the dead which 
were in it ; and death and hell delivered up the dead 
which were in them : and they were judged every 



250 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

man according to their works. And death and hell 
were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second 
death. And whosoever was not found written in the 
book of life was cast into the lake of fire." This is a 
fuller description of the scenes of the final judgment 
than the former. The apostle appears desirous to 
abide by the rule of evidence God had laid down, 
"that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every 
word shall be established." This seems to be the uni- 
form practice in the Scriptures. Each truth is enun- 
ciated the second or more times. How could it be 
expressed in clearer terms, that every being in the 
general judgment, who should be found opposed to 
the government of God, should be cast into the lake 
of fire, which is the second death ? This is the same 
fire " unto which the present heavens and earth are 
reserved," which shall produce the perdition or utter 
destruction of ungodly men. What fact or truth is 
more clearly stated in the Scriptures, than that these 
fires are the same and identical, and that this is the 
only fire into which the ungodly and impure will be 
sent ? That it is expressly prepared for the devil and 
his angels and the perdition of ungodly men ; that it 
will burn up all that is offensive to God, the sin and 
the sinner, whether men or devils ; and that, when 
the works of the devil are burned up, for which 
" Jesus was manifested," and when this grand result 
is attained, from this fire we are to look for " new 
heavens and a new earth," in which " there should be 
no more sorrow, pain, sickness, tears, or death," in 
which should dwell righteousness. Who, after such 
revelations from God, is justified in believing and in 



REVELATION. 25 I 

teaching that wicked men and the devil will dwell in 
conscious torments in these fires eternally ? Who is 
justified in declaring that this fire will burn eternally 
around this globe, when we are expressly taught that 
this earth and this heaven will come out of it purified 
of all the works of the devil ? Who is justified and 
free from unprovoked blasphemy, that will say God 
will, by his omnific power, perpetuate these flames, 
after all the works of the devil are burned up ? Does 
not the Bible teach they will be burned up ? If these 
men and devil will burn forever — I mean eternally — 
the object of these fires will never be attained ; for 
they were prepared expressly to burn up the work of 
the devil. Do not the works of the devil embody all 
opposition to God, including himself and wicked men ? 
Will men ask how the devil could make himself? I 
will ask, How could a being of infinite wisdom, jus- 
tice, and love, create a devil ? The merest common 
sense would teach a man he could not. God made him 
holy, but, through an unholy ambition, or some other 
principle, he fell from his allegiance to his Maker. He 
made himself a devil ; he was the author of his own 
rebellion. He changed the glory of God into an ad- 
versary ; and God says that he and all his works shall 
be burned up ; and it will be consummated. When 
this great, just, and benevolent object is attained, what 
reason has any sane man to affirm that these same 
fires will be kept burning eternally ? Will any say 
God acts without reason ? No ; these fires are pre- 
pared for, and, at the proper time, will purify this 
world from sin, and every impure thing ; and the 
earth, when purified, will be a new earth, fn which 



252 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

will dwell righteousness. As further proof that this 
present earth is to be purified and become the new- 
earth, John says he noticed this peculiarity in the 
change — the new earth had no sea ! 

Is this the true revelation of the destiny of the 
earth, wicked men and devils ? Then will men still 
declare that God will not accomplish what he says in 
his word, but will perpetuate this scene of rebellion, 
impurity, and blasphemy to all eternity ? I ask, in all 
sober earnestness, For what ? To promote his glory ; 
because the scene is pleasing to him ; because it will 
inure to the pleasure, happiness, or good of the saved 
or the damned ? In the absence of any reason or of 
any revelation from God to this effect, let not men 
dare to presume it, to the disparagement of the cha- 
racter of God ! I charge you, beware how you traduce 
your Maker, pervert his word, deny his truth, to pro- 
mulgate the false statement of the devil, " Thou shalt 
not surely die." God is as jealous of his honor as any 
learned man of the present age, though he is not at 
all tinctured with an unholy ambition, cowardice, or 
fawning obsequiousness. 

Rev. 2 1 : 3-5 : " And I heard a great voice out of 
heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with 
men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be 
his people, and God himself shall be with them, and 
be their God." Through the entire Scriptures men 
are spoken of'as a race, including the good and evil. 
In the above quotation, there is no exception made 
for the unregenerate. " Behold, the tabernacle of God 
is with men," etc. If the wicked were then in being, 
would not veracity and all rules of language have re- 



REVELATION. 253 

quired the apostle to have changed his phraseology, 
and have said, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with 
the righteous, who would only have been a part of the 
then existing race ? Certainly ; his very expression 
implies that the wicked were not : and they having 
been consumed in the fires into which they were cast, 
makes the expression of the revelator just and proper. 
There is not the slightest intimation that the ungod- 
ly were then in existence, which there would have 
been had they not been consumed, as he said they 
were, by the " fire coming down from God out of 
heaven." Men, if they are damned, do not cease to 
be men if they still exist. So we should infer that 
those who here are styled wicked are no longer ene- 
mies to God, if they were in being at this time re- 
ferred to by the apostle, and were with God. Surely 
my opponents will not assume the name of Univer- 
salists, though their creed enjoins it upon them ; yet, 
to be consistent, they should class themselves with 
restorationists, or with the word of God, which clear- 
ly teaches the wicked are not immortal, but, in the 
judgment, lose their being in the second death. There 
is no alternative, if the Scriptures are credible, but to 
be a Universalist or a non-believer in the immortality 
of the enemies of God. 

Rev. 21 14: "And God shall wipe away all tears 
from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, 
neither sorrow, nor crying ; neither shall there be any 
more pain : for the former things are passed away." 
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. From 
whose eyes ? From men's eyes. What men ? From 
all men then living and who are immortal ; for there 



254 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

are no exceptions in the revelation, and no man has a 
right to correct God's word. Infinite Wisdom under- 
stands what he wishes to communicate, and needs 
not the learning and the prejudices of this world to 
prompt him. The blessed assurance is, God will wipe 
away all tears from all human faces. "And there 
shall be no more death." When ? After the devil 
and wicked men descend into the second death. How 
can any man, who has any reverence for his Maker, 
or any credence in his word, continue to say that the 
wicked will continue to exist, in the second death, 
eternally ? Death is the extinguishment of life. The 
one is the opposite of the other. They can not co- 
exist, more than fire and water. God says expressly, 
and without any reserve or modification, " There shall 
be no more death." Who, in the presence of his 
God, will dare to say there will be — yes, will be, to all 
eternity! I can not account for such presumption* 
unless it be on account of fear for one another. The 
same as a congregation of sinners may be melted to 
tears on account of their sins and unlikeness to God ; 
but not one will manifest a resolution to reform, for 
fear of the rest. Should one half of those affected act 
as their feelings and judgments would prompt them, 
the rest would be glad to do the same. But no one 
dares to think what most do not call orthodox. " They 
say there must have been a good reason for their be- 
lief in the immortality of the sinner, and I will coin- 
cide with them. It can't be far from the truth, or 
learned men would have found it out." Now, this kind 
of belief and reason will not shelter from responsibility 
and condemnation in the day of judgment. All will 



REVELATION. 255 

there be judged by the word of God. What this one 
believed or that one believed, will produce no pallia- 
tion. It will be, What did you believe ? The promise 
is, There shall be no more death, whether you call 
it temporal, natural, physical, spiritual, the first or the 
second death. None in existence, or to be in exist- 
ence ; for, says the revelator, death and hell were 
cast into the lake of fire ; this is the second death. 
" There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor 
crying ; neither shall there be any more pain." The 
expression is universal. There shall be no more sor- 
row nor pain. Anywhere in the entire* universe ; at 
any rate, not on this earth. Can men and devils exist 
in the lake of fire and brimstone without sorrow and 
pain ? If they can, it would be no punishment ; if 
they can not, there is no conscious existence ; they 
have become extinct, " and are as though they had 
not been." But may there not be a mistake in all 
this ? No ; for the inspiration of God further says, 
The former things are passed away ; passed away for- 
ever — eternally : all sins — impurity and rebellion — 
all opposition to God. How could this be true, if the 
devil and innumerable millions of wicked men were 
still conscious in the lake of fire ? Will men con- 
tinue to contradict the word of inspiration, rather 
than disbelieve the declaration of the devil, " Thou 
shalt not surely die" ? Lamentable has been man's 
fall ; lamentable indeed must be his obscuration and 
obtuseness, if the revealed truth of God does not 
enable him to see the deception. Perverse, indeed, 
must be his nature, if he can see more glory and good 
in the falsehood of the chief spirit of evil, than in the 



256 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

eternal truth of God ! Why will men say the wicked 
are immortal, when God says they are not ? 

Verse 5 : "And he that sat upon the throne said, 
Behold, I make all things new." When was this 
said ? While the devil and the wicked were still 
alive ? Clearly not ; else we might expect these adver- 
saries to God would be renovated and made new ! 
Previous to this, the revelator says they were con- 
sumed in the fire which came down from God out of 
heaven. When this fire had accomplished the pur- 
poses of God in destroying his enemies, and all ves- 
tige of them, God says, " Behold !" wonder and be as- 
tonished. " Behold," from this universal scene of 
desolation, " I make all things new." The earth, in 
its pristine beauty, innocence, and harmony, was beau- 
tiful ; so much so, that all the sons of God shouted 
for joy ; but they shall see, in the formation of the 
new heavens and earth, more beauty and sublimity. 
The new earth shall so far transcend the former in 
grandeur that Adam, who was conversant with the 
former, ere it was dimmed by confusion, will be con- 
strained to say, with the inspired apostle, " Eye hath 
not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into 
the heart of man, the things which God has prepared 
for those who love him." The sons of God will have 
additional reason to glory in their Creator, when, in- 
stead of being foiled by his adversaries, God surrounds 
himself with additional splendors, and causes the new 
earth to shine forth, in its revolutions, with infinitely 
more lustre and brightness ! Being recovered from 
its dimness and error, will forever shine forth a trophy 
in the galaxy of the heavens ! 



REVELATION. 2^J 

It would seem that no one would have the presump- 
tion to change the phraseology or the construction 
of this revelation ; for the apostle says he was di- 
rected to write, " These words are true and faithful." 
Are true ; mean exactly what they purport — all they 
express they mean, and the revelation is reliable. 

Verse 6 : "And he said unto me, It is done." What 
done ? The righteous saved ; the rebels — the enemies 
of God — destroyed ; the works of the devil burned 
up ; the earth, polluted by sin, purified ; this darkened 
planet reilluminated ! The devil, his followers, and 
their hell forever gone from God's universe ! " I am 
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." I am 
the author and the finisher of all existences. Will 
any man solemnly contemplate this particular reve- 
lation, and still affirm the enemies of God are immor- 
tal ? Will you make God the author of the adversa- 
ry ? If the adversary was in existence at the time 
when these words are represented to be uttered, 
would not God be his author, finisher, or constitutor? 
It can not be evaded. Then will you still advocate a 
theory that makes God the author of the devil ? Do 
you not know that the devil, desecrating the noblest 
gift ever bestowed on a creature — that is, his volition 
— made himself an adversary to God ? From being a 
seraph, he sank himself to an apostate. God here 
says he is the beginning and the end, the author of 
all things that were in existence at that period. Thus 
it was impossible for the devil, at that time, to have 
had an existence, else God would have been his 
author. " I will give unto him that is athirst, of the 
fountain of the water of life freely." Keep this in 



258 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

mind, that this is after the judgment ; after the fire 
came down from God and consumed all his enemies ; 
after the earth was purified by fire, of all the works 
of the devil ; when peace reigns through the whole 
of Jehovah's realm, then God's promise is, "That who- 
soever thirsts, he will give unto him of the fountain 
of the water of life freely." From this do you not see 
that the parable of the rich man and Lazarus did not 
at all refer to this scene ? If it did, could not the 
rich man have quenched his thirst at the fountain of 
the water of life ? Would he not have been included 
in the offer, if it was true that he was then in con- 
scious being ? Is not this proof positive that that 
parable referred to the duties and responsibilities of 
this life ? Is it not clearly evident that, ere this era, 
all the opposition to the government of God had 
ceased ? If it were true that the wicked were then 
alive in the lake that burnetii with fire and brimstone, 
would not each inmate of those fires agonize with 
thirst ? Would they not be permitted to come to the 
fountain and slake their thirst ? Most assuredly ; for 
God is candid in all his offers. Do you not see an 
absurdity in all this, if the rich man was then alive in 
torment ? Would he not have been prevented from 
coming to the fountain ? Does it not show that the 
great gulf, that was between the rich man and his five 
brethren, was natural death ? and is this not proved 
by the declaration of Abraham, that his brethren 
would not be persuaded, though Lazarus rose from 
the dead, and should exhort them ? No ; the rich 
man, and all the finally impenitent, with the devil at 
this time, were burned up ; they had ceased to live ; 



REVELATION. 259 

they had gone into the second death, from which there 
was to be no resurrection ; and the precious promise 
of God was only to those who were in affinity with 
him and were loyal to his government. 

Can any student of the Bible believe that this in- 
vitation to come to the fountain of the water of life 
extended to the devil and his associates in rebellion ? 
Yet as sure as this quotation is from the word of God, 
it does, provided they have not heretofore been con- 
sumed or destroyed. If they had not been consumed 
in the fire that came clown from God out of heaven, 
and which was the second death, then we are to un- 
derstand that their consumption and their second 
death meant their purification from sin and restora- 
tion to the favor of God, and consequent fitness to 
accept of the invitation to come to the fountain of 
the water of life. This is logical and a necessary 
sequence, if it is true that they are in conscious being 
at the time of this assurance, that to all who thirst 
God will give of the water of life. Do you not, my 
brethren, see the absurdity and the impossibility to 
believe that the enemies of God were then in exist- 
ence ? 

Again, what virtue are we to consider was in the 
water of the fountain of life ? Are we not to under- 
stand that its virtue was to perpetuate life or con- 
scious being ? Does not the expression convey to our 
minds the idea that the water of life has the same in- 
fluence or effect as was to be had from the fruit of 
the tree of life in Eden. To be debarred from both, 
was it not an assurance of cessation of being ? Then 
if the enemies of God were alive at this era, and 



260 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

were prevented from coming to the fountain of the 
water of life, would it not assure a speedy cessation 
of being ? Certainly it would. So it is evident that 
you may look at this question from any stand-point 
you please, and the non-immortality of the sinner is 
assured. 

Verse 7 : " And he that overcometh shall inherit 
all things ; and I will be his God, and he shall be my 
son." " He that overcometh" what ? The machina- 
tions of the devil, the corruptions of his own nature, 
and the powers of the second death, through the 
blood of the Lamb, " Shall inherit all things." 
What ! the lake of fire ? If it is in existence, he will 
assuredly inherit that ; for he shall inherit all things 
without any reservation. Poor inheritance ! I would 
not covet it ; and I am sure no inhabitant of heaven 
would desire it. Why will my brethren believe a 
doctrine that involves them in so many absurdities ? 
No ; there is no such undesirable inheritance for the 
sons of God. It is not in existence. God has made 
all things new ; happiness pervades the world, and 
love is the prevailing element of the universe. 

Verse 8 : " But the fearful, and unbelieving, and 
the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, 
and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have 
their part in the lake which burnetii with fire and 
brimstone : which is the second death." What por- 
tion does the Bible teach they will have ? " Perdi- 
tion," " everlasting destruction," " to be burned," " to 
be drowned in the fury of God's wrath," " to be con- 
sumed, and to fall into the second death," " to be as 
though they had not been," "to consume away as the 



REVELATION. 26 1 

fat of lambs," " to consume away," " to be swept away 
in a flood of wrath," " to die." What other terms 
could be used to convey the idea of extinction, or loss 
of conscious being? From which of these terms, 
which are freely used to show the destiny of the wick- 
ed, can you infer an immortality for the ungodly ? 
You who teach the immortality of the enemies of the 
Most High, would you exceed the wisdom of God ? 
Will you still labor to pervert the word of God, and 
change his eternal truth into a lie ? Will you mur- 
der God's inspired word, and wrest from its language 
its true, evident, and legitimate construction ? Will 
you nullify and destroy the entire revelation of God 
to man for the purpose of falsifying the declaration of 
your Maker, to make truthful the falsehood of the 
devil, " Thou shalt not surely die" ? Why will men be 
so blindly obstinate? Why will they embrace an er- 
ror, and labor so assiduously to sustain it. Why not 
consent so take the word as it reads ? A mystified 
meaning God never designed should be drawn from 
it. Its simplicity is its glory. A wayfaring man, 
though a fool, need not err in its perusal. Allow it to 
have its true, evident, and legitimate meaning, as you 
would any other book, and it will harmonize through- 
out and agree perfectly with the attributes of its 
Author. But yield credence to the foul falsehood of 
the devil, and you multiply inconsistencies and make 
the whole a jargon. To those who are the deepest 
and most logical thinkers, who are independent in 
their views, and have moral courage to discard an 
absurdity, notwithstanding its long and universal com- 
mendation and its indorsement by religious fanati- 



262 .THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

cism — to such, I say, the way to life is hedged up. 
Not that they were less competent to investigate ; 
but being disposed to worldly ambitions, they say, If 
the learned divines skilled in biblical lore glean such 
absurdities from the so-called word of God, we doubt, 
and are willing to leave our future in the hands of 
Him who gives the present. I guess all will be well. 
Thus a wholesale recklessness is engendered by this 
perversion and false construction of the word of life. 
It becomes especially every teacher of ethics to ex- 
amine carefully where this responsibility rests. For 
our Saviour says, " Whosoever shall break one of 
these least commandments, and shall teach men so, 
shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven." 

Revelation 22 : 1-3 : " And he showed me a pure 
river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out 
of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst 
of the street of it, and on either side of the river, 
was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner 
of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month : and the 
leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 
And there shall be no more curse." Where ? There 
is no limitation. No more curse anywhere in God's 
entire realm. Will any man have the effrontery to 
say there will ? Is not this God's statement ? Will 
a man say God does not mean what he says ? I wish 
to have it understood there is one who dares to be- 
lieve his Maker, though a learned world would rather 
believe the devil, who says to his deluded, We shall 
live to indulge an eternal hate, and foster an unend- 
ing rebellion against God and his government. 
Falsehood unparalleled ! God says, " Thou shalt sure- 



REVELATION. 263 

ly die." If millions on millions of human beings are 
there, and will be to all eternity writhing in agonies, 
consequent on being in the lake of fire burning with 
brims-tone, is there, can there be any truth in the 
statement, "And there shall be no more curse" ? 
Would it be no curse to burn eternally ? No curse 
to be immersed in the melted, liquid lava of hell 
through eternity ? Yet it is not a curse, provided 
this statement and the immortality of the sinner is 
true ; but allowing it would be a curse, whose state- 
ment is to be credited ? The omniscient God's, or 
that of the sinning, apostate devil's ? If God's state- 
ment is to be believed, "There shall" be no more 
curse ;" his enemies are all destroyed, universal har- 
mony and love reign through his entire realm, the 
wicked are not immortal ; but if the statement of the 
devil and my opponents is true, is to be credited, 
then the horrid shrieks of despair and agony will 
vibrate throughout eternity, curses measureless and 
innumerable will exist forever, and the pledge of God 
has proved false which said, " The soul that sinneth, 
it shall die ;" the devil's falsehood, " Thou shalt not 
surely die," has become a truth, and my opponents' 
-theory is correct — the enemies of God are immortal. 
As for myself, I am not at all reluctant to be on the 
side of my Maker and his truth, and I humbly trust 
that hereafter many more will coincide with me. 

.Let us consider this scripture somewhat further. 
In man's glorified state, he will have access to the 
river of life, on whose banks will flourish " the tree 
of life, bearing its twelve manner of fruits in their 
seasons : and the leaves of this tree will be for the 



264 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

1 

healing of the nations" that are saved. Why should 
this access be had ? Why this eating of this fruit ? 
Why the leaves for the healing of the nations ? Are 
they not the instituted, and made the indispensable, 
means of longevity, of an eternal perpetuation of life ? 
According to God's economy, think you even the 
saints would be immortal without these ? If they 
could, why should they be called the river and tree of 
life ? God has made them the means of life, the 
same as he has made our food the means of our na- 
tural life. Has God anywhere in his word revealed 
the fact that he has provided a nourishment in hell 
to perpetuate the miseries of the damned ? Shame 
on such a theory ! No. The revelation of God is, he 
has prepared a fire to cleanse this world from sin and 
rebellion ; he has prepared it to burn up the works 
of the devil, and that he and all his associates will be 
consumed in it ; that in it they " shall be destroy- 
ed," shall perish, "shall be burned up, so that there 
shall not be left either root or branch." What a dis- 
parity of provision for the lover of God and the 
enemy of God ! The one is to insure loss of being, 
the other an eternal perpetuation of being. For the 
one the devouring fire, for the other the revivifying 
influence of the life-bearing tree. How can men be 
deluded longer ? The destiny such men would allot 
the sinner is inimical to the divine character, oppos- 
ed to and a positive denial of God's word, and against 
reason, and an outrage on all the finer sensibilities of 
man's nature. 

There is another feature in this quotation worthy 
of notice. It is said the leaves of the tree shall be 



REVELATION. 265 

for the healing of the nations. How should this be 
understood ? since it is revealed that in that world of 
joy there will be no sickness, sorrow, or pain. It can 
not be considered as a specific for the healing of dis- 
eases, for there are no diseases there. At the most, 
it can only be to heal, or restore, or prevent any di- 
minution of strength consequent on labors of love ; 
for there will saints be busy in felicitous employ- 
ments. A pure etiquette, an affectionate and tender 
attention, and loving duties will not be wanting in 
yonder world of joy. All will be happy, as each 
would contribute to the happiness of others. No 
jealousies, no rivalries there. No unholy ambitions, 
or fear that others should be considered more worthy 
than themselves. Love is the mainspring and result 
of every action. 

Verse 6 : "He said unto me, These sayings are 
faithful and true ?" In what respect ? Evidently in 
their plain and obvious meaning. In other words, 
they mean just what they say, and all they say. No 
sophistry is needed to explain them. The wayfaring 
man, though a fool, need not err in understanding 
them. All may be confident ; they clearly and un- 
mistakingly represent what God intended to reveal. 
We should regard the entire Scriptures in the same 
light, and happy would it be, if all had, and would 
thus peruse, the word of God. 

Rev. 22 : 8, 10; 1 1 : "And I John saw these things, 
and heard them. And he saith unto me, Seal not 
the sayings of the prophecy of this book : for the 
time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be un- 
just still : and he which is filthy, let him be filthy 



266 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

still : and he that is righteous, let him be righteous 
still : and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And 
behold, I come quickly ; and my reward is with me, 
to give every man according as his work shall be. I 
am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, 
the first and the last." Solemn thought, man's pro- 
bation is ended. All had a chance for life or immor- 
tality, but all did not improve it. Time has ended. 
A part of the human family are saved eternally. A 
part are lost, and lost forever. The mediatorial 
throne has been vacated ; the Mediator has become 
the Judge, and Jesus has delivered up the govern- 
ment to the Father, that God may be all and in all. 
The revelator has brought us in his vision to the 
final scene, and it is as real as we shall find it when 
realized by all. I look at it with the same certainty 
as though it had been really realized. Oh ! how so- 
lemn that these scenes will soon be interwoven into 
our own history through each one's experience. Oh ! 
that each reader might duly realize the solemnity of 
living, which in truth exceeds the solemnity of dying. 
Immortality or loss of being is what each one chooses. 
Having now passed through the entire Scriptures, 
and quoted each allusion in them to the destiny of 
the finally impenitent, I solemnly, in view of the 
judgment, aver before my Maker, and each of those 
into whose hands this compilation may come, that I, 
with, the judgment and powers of criticism I possess, 
am not able to discover in any one or all of them the 
idea advanced that the enemies of God are or will 
be immortal ; but, on the contrary, I find each and 
every allusion in the divine word relating to the des- 



REVELATION. 267 

tiny of the finally impenitent teaching their com- 
plete destruction, loss of being, or extinction. Hav- 
ing thus isolated the entire Revelation, with refer- 
ence to the destiny of the sinner, from the many 
other revelations on various subjects, and enabled 
each reader to weigh the evidence given by our 
heavenly Father on this most important subject, I 
cheerfully leave the subject with him, believing that 
he can not come to any other conclusion than that to 
which I have arrived — that the wicked are not immor- 
tal, and never will be. 



268 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 



We will now proceed to give the allusions to the 
destiny of the righteous without comment, as we 
hope there is no difference of opinion between us on 
this point. 

Matthew 5:3:" Blessed are the poor in spirit, for 
theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Should I find 
passages inadvertently passed over, which refer to 
the destiny of the wicked, I may make a passing re- 
mark upon them. 

Matthew 5:5: "Blessed are the meek : for they 
shall inherit the earth." Verse 8 : " Blessed are the 
pure in heart : for they shall see God." Verse 9 : 
" Blessed are the peacemakers : for they shall be 
called the children of God." Verse 10 : " Blessed are 
they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake : 
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Verses 1 1 and 
12 : "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and 
persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against 
you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding 
glad : for great is your reward in heaven : for so per- 
secuted they the prophets which were before you." 

Matthew 5 : 19, 20 : " Whosoever therefore shall 
break one of these least commandments, and shall 
teach men so, he shall be called the least in the 
kingdom of heaven : but whosoever shall do and 
teach them, the same shall be called great in the 
kingdom of heaven. Foi»I say unto you, That except 
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of 
the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 269 

into the kingdom of heaven." 21, 22: "Ye have 
heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou 
shalt not kill ; and whosoever shall kill shall be in 
danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, That 
whosoever shall be angry with his brother without a 
cause shall be in danger of the judgment : and who- 
soever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in 
danger of the council : but whosoever shall say, Thou 
fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." 29, 30 : " And 
if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it 
from thee : for it is profitable for thee that one of 
thy members should perish, and not that thy whole 
body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand 
offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee : for it is 
profitable for thee that one of thy members should 
perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast 
into hell." 

7 : 21-23 : "Not every one that saith unto me, 
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; 
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in 
heaven. Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, 
Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in 
thy name cast out devils ? and in thy name done 
many wonderful works ? And then will I profess unto 
them, I never knew you : depart from me, ye that 
work iniquity." 8 : 11, 12 : "And I say unto you, 
That many shall come from the east and west, and 
shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, 
in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the 
kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness : there 
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 10 : 22 : 
"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's 



270 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

sake : but he that endureth to the end shall be saved." 
Matthew 19 : 16, 17: "And, behold, one came and 
said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I 
do, that I may have eternal life ? And he said unto 
him, Why callest thou me good ? there is none good 
but one, that is, God : but if thou wilt enter into life, 
keep the commandments." 21 : "Jesus said unto 
him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou 
hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have trea- 
sure in heaven : and come and follow me." 22, 23 : 
"And when the young man heard that saying, he went 
away sorrowful : for he had great possessions. Then 
said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, 
That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom 
of heaven." 24 : "And again I say unto you, It is 
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle 
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of 
God." 28 : "And Jesus said unto them, Verily I 
say unto you, That ye who have followed me, in the 
regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the 
throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve 
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." 29 : 
"And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, 
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, 
or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundred 
fold, and shall inherit everlasting life." 22 : 2-14: 
" The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king 
which made a marriage for his son. . -. . And when 
the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a 
man which had not on a wedding garment : and he 
saith unto him, Friend, how earnest thou in hither, 
not having a wedding garment ? And he was speech- 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 27 1 

less. Then said the king unto the servants, Bind 
him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him 
into outer darkness ; there shall be weeping and 
gnashing of teeth." 24:46-51: "Blessed is that 
servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so 
doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make 
him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil ser- 
vant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his 
coming ; and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, 
and to eat and drink with the drunken ; the lord of 
that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not 
for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and 
shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion 
with the hypocrites : there shall be weeping and 
gnashing of teeth." There is not here the slightest 
intimation that they will gnash their teeth forever. 
No one that is conscious can burn up without agony. 

CHAPTER XXV. 

I The parable of the ten virgins, 14 and of the tal- 
ents. 31 Also the description of the last judgment. 

1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened 
unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went 
forth to meet the bridegroom. 

2 And five of them were wise, and five were fool- 
ish. 

3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took 
no oil with them : 

4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their 
lamps. 



2/2 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered 
and slept. 

6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, 
the bridegroom cometh ; go ye out to meet him. 

7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their 
lamps. 

8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of 
your oil ; for our lamps are gone out. 

9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so ; lest 
there be not enough for us and you : but go ye rather 
to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. 

io And while they went to buy, the bridegroom 
came ; and they that were ready went in with him 
to the marriage : and the door was shut. 

1 1 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, 
Lord Lord, open to us. 

12 But he answered and said, Verily, I say unto 
you, I know you not. 

13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day 
nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. 

14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travel- 
ing into a far country, who called his own servants, 
and delivered unto them his goods. 

15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another 
two, and to another one ; to every man according to 
his several ability ; and straightway took his journey. 

16 Then he that had received the five talents went 
and traded with the same, and made them other five 
talents. 

17 And likewise he that had received two, he also 
gained other two. 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 273 

18 But he that had received one went and digged 
in the earth, and hid his lord's money. 

19 After a long time the lord of those servants 
cometh, and reckoneth with them. 

20 And so he that had received five talents came 
and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou 
deliveredst unto me five talents : behold, I have gain- 
ed beside them five talents more. 

21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good 
and faithful servant ; thou hast been faithful over a 
few things, I will make thee ruler over many things : 
enter thou into the joy of thy lord. 

22 He also that had received two talents came and 
said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents : be- 
hold, I have gained two other talents beside them. 

23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and 
faithful servant ; thou hast been faithful over a few 
things, I will make thee ruler over many things : 
enter thou into the joy of thy lord. 

24 Then he which had received the one talent 
came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an 
hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and 
gathering where thou hast not strewed : 

25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent 
in the earth : lo, there thou hast that is thine. 

26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou 
wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I 
reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have 
not strewed : 

27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money 
to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should 
have received mine own with usury. 



274 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give 
it unto him which hath ten talents. 

29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, 
and he shall have abundance : but from him that 
hath not shall be taken away even that which he 
hath. 

30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer 
darkness : there shall be weeping and gnashing of 
teeth. 

31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, 
and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit 
upon the throne of his glory : 

32 And before him shall be gathered all nations : 
and he shall separate them one from another, as a 
shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats : 

33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, 
but the goats on the left. 

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right 
hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the 
world : 

35 For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat : 
I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I was a stran- 
ger, and ye took me in : 

36 Naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and ye 
visited me : I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, 
Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee ? 
or thirsty, and gave thee drink ? 

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee 
in ? or naked, and clothed thee ? 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 275 

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and 
came unto thee ? 

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, 
Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it 
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have 
done it unto me. 

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left 
hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting 
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels : 

42 For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat : 
I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink : 

43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in : naked, 
and ye clothed me not : sick, and in prison, and ye 
visited me not. 

44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, 
when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stran- 
ger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not min- 
ister unto thee ? « 

45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say 
unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the 
least of these, ye did it not to me. 

46 And these shall go away into everlasting pun- 
ishment : but the righteous into life eternal. 

Mark 3 : 28, 29 : " Verily I say unto you, All sins 
shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphe- 
mies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme : but he 
that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath 
never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damna- 
tion." That is at the most a damnation or condem- 
nation which shall never be reversed. Verse 40 : 
" But to sit on my right hand or on my left hand is 
not mine to give, but it shall be given to those for 



276 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

whom it is prepared." Mark 16:16: " He that be- 
lieveth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that 
believeth not shall be damned." Luke 12 : 58, 59 : 
" When thou goest with thine adversary to the magis- 
trate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou 
mayest be delivered from him ; lest he hale thee to 
the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, 
and the officer cast thee into prison. I tell thee, thou 
shalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the very 
last mite." 13 : 6-9 : "A certain man had a fig-tree 
planted in his vineyard ; and he came and sought 
fruit thereon and found none. Then said he unto the 
dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I 
come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none : 
cut it down ; why cumbereth it the ground ? And 
he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this 
year also, till I shall dig about it and dung it. And 
if it bear fruit, well : and if not, then after that thou 
shalt cut it down." This is most positive assurance 
of a loss of existence to the sinner. 

27-30 : " But he shall say, I tell you, I know you 
not whence ye are ; depart from me, all ye workers 
of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing 
of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and 
Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, 
and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come 
from the east, and from the west, and from the north, 
and from the south, and shall sit down in the king- 
dom of God." Luke 14 : 16-24 : " A certain man 
made a great supper, and bade many : and sent his 
servant at supper-time to say unto them that were bid- 
den, Come ; for all things are now ready. And they 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 2JJ 

all with one consent began to make excuse. The 
first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, 
and I must needs go and see it : 1 pray thee have 
me excused. And another said, I have bought five 
yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them : I pray thee 
have me excused. And another said, I have married 
a wife, and therefore I can not come. So that ser- 
vant came and showed his lord these things. Then 
the master of the house being angry said to his ser- 
vant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the 
city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, 
and the halt, and the blind. And the master said 
unto the servant, Go out into the highways and 
hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house 
may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of 
those men which were bidden shall taste of my 
supper." 

Luke 15 : 4 to the end : " What man of you, hav- 
ing a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not 
leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go 
after that which is lost, until he find it ? And when 
he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoic- 
ing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together 
his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Re- 
joice with me ; for I have found my sheep which was 
lost. I say unto you, That likewise joy shall be in 
heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than 
over ninety and nine just persons, which need no 
repentance. Either what woman having ten pieces of 
silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle and 
sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it ? 
And when she hath found i% she calleth her friends 



2/8 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

and neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me ; for 
I have found the piece I had lost. Likewise I say 
unto you, There is joy in the presence of the angels 
of God over one sinner that repenteth. And he said, 
A certain rich man had two sons : and the younger 
of them said to his father, Father, give me the por- 
tion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided 
unto them his living. And not many days after, the 
younger son gathered all together, and took his jour- 
ney into a far country, and there wasted his substance 
with riotous living. And when he had spent all, 
there arose a mighty famine in that land ; and he 
began to be in want. And he went and joined him- 
self to a citizen of that country ; and he sent him 
into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain 
have filled his belly with the husks that the swine 
did eat ; and no man gave unto him. And when he 
came to himself, he said, How many hired servants 
of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and 
I perish with hunger ! I will arise and go to my 
father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned 
against heaven and before thee, and am no more 
worthy to be called thy son : make me as one of thy 
hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. 
But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw 
him, and had compassion on him, and ran, and fell on 
his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto 
him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy 
sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. 
But the father said unto his servants, Bring forth the 
best robe, and put it on him ; and put a ring on his 
hand, and shoes on his feet : bring hither the fatted 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 279 

calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry : for this my 
son was dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is 
found. And they began to be merry. ' Now his elder 
son was in the field ; and as he came and drew nigh 
to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he 
called one of the servants, and asked what these things 
meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come ; 
and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he 
hath received him safe and sound. And he was 
angry, and would not go in ; therefore came his father 
out, and intreated him. And he answering said to 
his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, 
neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment ; 
and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might 
make merry with my friends : but as soon as this thy 
son was come, which hath devoured thy living with 
harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And 
he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all 
that I have is thine. It was meet that we should 
make merry, and be glad : for this thy brother was 
dead, and is alive again ; and was lost, and is found." 
The parables of this chapter, I think, are of great 
significance. I think they not only teach man's con- 
dition and relationship, but I think they clearly teach 
that in all probability the inhabitants of this planet 
are the only rebellious creatures in the universe. 
These parables can not well be explained, unless this 
construction be given them. What a consoling 
thought that men and devil are the only sinners in 
God's dominion ! Nor do either of them give the 
least intimation that the finally impenitent will be 
immortal. But they do convey the idea of extinction 



28o THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

in a very forcible manner — that those who are lost 
and can not be found are irrecoverably gone, and can 
not be repossessed. 22 : 28-30 : " Ye are they which 
have continued with me in my temptations, and I 
appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath ap- 
pointed unto me : that ye may eat and drink at my 
table in my kingdom." 

Luke 23 : 42, 43 : " And he said unto Jesus, Lord, 
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. 
And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, to- 
day shalt thou be with me in paradise." 

John 3 : 14-17 : " And as Moses lifted up the ser- 
pent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man 
be lifted up ; that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent 
not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but 
that the world through him might be saved." Verse 
16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 
4 : 13, 14: "Jesus answered and said unto her, Who- 
soever drinketh of this water shall thirst again ; but 
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him 
shall never thirst ; but the water that I shall give him 
shall be in him a well of water springing up into 
everlasting life." Verse 36 : " And he that reapeth 
receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, 
that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may re- 
joice together." John 5 : 24 : " Verily, verily, I say unto 
you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him 
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come 
into condemnation ; but is passed from death unto 






THE DESTINY OF MAN. 2Sl 

life." Verse 40 : " And ye will not come to me that 
ye may have life." John 6 : 27 : " Labor not for the 
meat that perisheth, but for that meat that endureth 
unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give 
unto you : for him hath God the Father sealed." 
Verse 33 : " For the bread of God is he which cometh 
down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world." 
Verse 35 : "And Jesus saith unto them, I am the 
bread of life ; he that cometh to me shall never hun- 
ger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." 
Verse 40 : " And this is the will of him that sent me, 
that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on 
him, may have everlasting life ; and I will raise him 
up at the last day." Verse 47 : " Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting 
life. I am that bread of life." Verses 50, 51 : "This 
is that bread which cometh down from heaven, that 
a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living 
bread which came down from heaven : if any man eat 
of this bread, he shall live forever, and. the bread that 
I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life 
of the world." 

John 10 : 7-1 1 : "Then said Jesus unto them again, 
Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the 
sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and 
robbers : but the sheep did not hear them. I am the 
door : by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, 
and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief 
cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and destroy : 
I am come that they might have life, and that they 
might have it more abundantly. I am the good shep- 
heid : the good shepherd giveth his life for the 
sheep." 



282 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

John 11 : 25, 26 : "Jesus saith unto her, I am the 
resurrection and the life ; he that believeth in me, 
though he were dead, yet shall he live. And who- 
soever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." 
John 14 : 1-3 : " Let not your heart be troubled : ye 
believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's 
house are many mansions ; if it were not so, I would 
have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And 
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again 
and receive you to myself; that where I am, there ye 
may be also." Verse 19 : " Yet a little while, and the 
world seeth me no more ; but ye see me : because I 
live, ye shall live also." Verse 23 : "Jesus answered 
and said Unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my 
words : and my Father will love him, and we will come 
unto him, and make our abode with him." John 15 : 
1-6 : " I am the true vine, and my Father is the hus- 
bandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, 
he taketh away ; and every branch that beareth fruit, 
he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 
Now ye are clean through the word which I have 
spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As 
the branch can not bear fruit of itself, except it abide 
in the vine ; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 
I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth 
in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much 
fruit : for without me ye can do nothing. If a man 
abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is 
withered ; and men gather them, and cast them into 
the fire, and thev are burned." 

Acts 4 : 12: "Neither is there salvation in any 
other : for there is none other name under heaven 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 283 

whereby we must be saved." Acts 26 : i3 : "To open 
their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, 
and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may 
receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among 
them that are sanctified by faith that is in me." 

Romans 5 : 6-10 : " For when we were without 
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die : yet, 
peradventure, for a good man, some would even dare 
to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in 
that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, 
we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, 
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God 
by the death of his Son ; much more, being recon- 
ciled, we shall be saved by his life." Rom. 5 : 15-17 : 
" For if through the offense of one many be dead, 
much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, 
which is by one man Christ Jesus, hath abounded 
unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, 
so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to 
condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses 
unto justification. For if by one man's offense death 
reigned by one ; much more they which receive abun- 
dance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall 
reign in life by one Jesus Christ." The statement 
that the wicked are not immortal, and the righteous 
will be immortal in the resurrection, can not be taught 
in plainer language than it is in this scripture. Ro- 
mans 6 : 3-6 : " Know ye not that so many of us as 
were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into 
his death ? Therefore we are buried with him by 



284 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

baptism into death ; that like as Christ was raised 
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so 
we also should walk in newness of life. For if we 
have been planted together in the likeness of his 
death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrec- 
tion ; knowing this, that our old man is crucified 
with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, 
that henceforth we should not serve sin." Verses 7- 
11:" For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now, if 
we be dead with Christ, we believe we shall also live 
with him : knowing that Christ, being raised from 
the dead, dieth no more ; death hath no more do- 
minion over him. For that he died, he died unto sin 
once ; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed 
unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ 
our Lord." Romans 7 : 24, 25 : " O wretched man 
that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this 
death ? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
Romans 8 : 1 o- 1 1 : "And if Christ be in you, the body 
is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because 
of righteousness. But if the spirit of him who raised 
up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised 
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your 
mortal bodies by the spirit that dwelleth in you." 
Verses 16, 17 : "The Spirit itself beareth witness with ' 
our spirit, that we are the children of God : and if 
children, then heirs : heirs of God and joint-heirs with 
Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may 
be also glorified together." 21 : "Because the crea- 
ture itself also shall be delivered from the bondage 
of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons ot 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 285 

God." 32 : " He that spared not his own Son, but 
delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with 
him also freely give us all things ?" 2 Corinthians 
4 : 14, 17, 18: "Knowing that he which raised up 
the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and 
shall present us with you. For our light affliction, 
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; while we 
look not at the things which are seen, but at the 
things which are not seen : for the things that are 
seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are 
eternal." 5 : 10 : " For we must all appear before the 
judgment seat of Cnrist, that every one may receive 
the things done in his body, according to that he hath 
done, whether it be good or evil." Philippians 4:19: 
" But my God shall supply all your need, according 
to his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus." 

1 Thessalonians 4 : 14-18: " For if we believe that 
Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also which 
sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we 
say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that we which 
are alive and remain unto the coming of our Lord, 
shall not prevent them which are asleep : for the 
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, 
with the voice of the archangel and with the trump 
of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first ; then 
we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up 
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord 
in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 

2 Timothy 1 : 10 : " But it is now made manifest by 
the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath 
abolished death, and hath brought life and immor- 



286 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

tality to light through the gospel." I can not here 
forbear a remark : " Hath abolished death ;" in what 
respect ? That sinning man might be immortal in 
his sin ? Oh ! no ; but after death had done its work 
of destroying the life of man, Jesus destroys this 
death to give a new, innocent life, which would be 
immortal, if not destroyed by sin. If the resurrected 
life be destroyed by sin, this resurrected life must die, 
become unconscious, the same as the natural life of 
Adam was necessitated to die in consequence of his 
disobedience. If there is not an antidote for this 
second death, as Jesus was for the first, then this 
second must of necessity be eternal. Then whence is 
the sinner's everlasting life, if there is provided no 
power to arise from this death ? I should think 
every reflecting mind, desiring the truth, could not 
fail to see that the enemies of God are not im- 
mortal. 

Titus i : I, 2 : " Paul, a servant of God, and an 
apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's 
elect, and the acknowledging of the truth, which is 
after godliness, in hope of an eternal life, which God, 
who can not lie, promised before the world began." 
2 : 1 1-14 : " For the grace of God that bringeth sal- 
vation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, 
denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live 
soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world ; 
looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing 
of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who 
gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all 
iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, 
zealous of good works." 3:7: " That being justified 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 28/ 

by his grace, we should be made heirs, according to 
the hope of eternal life." 

Hebrews 5:9: " And being made perfect, he be- 
came the author of eternal salvation unto all them 
that obey him." 

9 : 15 : "And for this cause he is the mediator of 
the new testament, that by means of death, for the 
redemption of the transgressions that were under the 
first testament, they which are called might receive 
the promise of eternal inheritance." 

10 : 39 : " But we are not of them who draw back 
unto perdition ; but of them that believe to the 
saving of the soul." 

12:9: " Furthermore we have had fathers of our 
flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence : 
shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the 
Father of spirits, and live ?" 

12 : 22-24 : " But ye are come unto mount Zion, 
and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly 
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 
to the general assembly and church of the first-born, 
which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge 
of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 
and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and 
to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things 
than the blood of Abel." 

James 1 : 12 : "Blessed is the man that endureth 
temptation : for when he is tried, he shall receive the 
crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them 
that love him." 

1 Peter 1:3,5: " Blessed be the God and Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his 



288 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a live- 
ly hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 
dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undented, 
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 
who are kept by the power of God through faith unto 
salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." 

Verse 9 : " Receiving the end of your faith, the 
salvation of your souls." Verse 23 : " Being born 
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by 
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." 

4:13: " But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers 
of Christ's sufferings, that, when his glory shall be 
revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." 

5:4:" And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, 
ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." 

2 Peter 2 : 1, 9: "But there were false prophets 
also among the people, even as there shall be false 
teachers among you, who privily shall bring in 
damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that 
bought them, and bring upon themselves swift de- 
struction. And many shall follow their pernicious 
ways ; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be 
evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they 
with feigned words make merchandise of you : whose 
judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their 
damnation slumbereth not. For if God spared not 
the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, 
and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be re- 
served unto the judgment; and spared not the old 
world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher 
of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world 
of the ungodly ; and turning the cities of Sodom 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 289 

and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an 
overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that 
after should live ungodly ; and delivered just Lot, 
vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked : 
. . . . The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly 
out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto 
the day of judgment to be punished." 

1 John 2:25: " And this is the promise that he has 
promised us, even eternal life." That is, eternal con- 
scious being ; and as God is good, we should expect 
nothing less than the greatest amount of happiness 
that each could enjoy. To those who will not obey 
and love him, he has promised no life or conscious 
being at all, but a certain, complete, and eternal 
death of the same. 

5 : 20 : " And we know that the Son of God is come, 
and hath given us an understanding, that we may 
know him that is true, and we are in him that is 
true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true 
God, and eternal life." 

Rev. 1:7:" Behold, he cometh with clouds : and 
every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced 
him : and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because 
of him. Even so, Amen." 

Verse 18 : "I am he that liveth, and was dead ; and, 
behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen ; and have 
the keys of hell and death." 

2:11: " He that hath an ear, let him hear what the 
Spirit saith unto the churches : He that overcometh 
shall not be hurt of the second death." 

7 : 14,, 15 : " And he said unto me, These are they 
which came out of great tribulation, and have washed 



29O THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

their robes, and made them white in the blood of the 
Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, 
and serve him day and night in his temple : and he 
that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them." 

Speaking of the new Jerusalem, he says, 21 : 24- 
27 : "And the nations of them which are saved shall 
walk in the light of it ; and the kings of the earth do 
bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates 
of it shall not be shut at all by day : for there shall 
be no night there. And they shall bring the honor 
and glory of the nations into it. And there shall in 
no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither 
whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie : 
but they which are written in the Lamb's book of 
life." 

22 : 14-20 : " Blessed are they that do his com- 
mandments, that they may have a right to the tree of 
life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. 
For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whore- 
mongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whoso- 
ever loveth and maketh a lie. I Jesus have sent mine 
angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. 
I am the root and the offspring of David, and the 
bright and morning star. The spirit and the bride 
say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. 
And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever 
will, let him take the water of life freely. For I tes- 
tify unto every man that heareth the words of the 
prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto 
these things, God shall add unto him the plagues 
that are written in this book : and if any man shall 
take away from the words of the book of this pro- 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 2gi 

phecy, God shall take away his part out of the book 
of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things 
that are written in this book. He which testifieth 
these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. 
Even so, come Lord, Jesus. Amen." 

We have now passed through the entire Scriptures, 
and have quoted every allusion to the destiny of our 
race, unless we may accidentally or inadvertently 
have overlooked any, which I have intended not to do. 
There are many among these latter quotations on 
which I have made no comments, which allude to the 
destiny of the righteous and the wicked. In these 
latter quotations, upon which I have not made any 
comments, there is the most positive proof that the 
wicked are not immortal. If there had been, in my 
opinion, the least necessity, I would have enlarged 
upon them. The doctrine of the non-immortality of 
the sinner has been so variously represented in the 
Bible, I am sure no further comment is needed. I 
am further satisfied that every candid reader of this 
compilation will be convinced, and confidently assur- 
ed, that there is not one text in all God's revelation 
to man which teaches, or has the appearance of 
teaching, the immortality of the finally incorrigible. 
On the other hand, the teaching is clear, abundant, 
positive, that all of the enemies of God in the judg- 
ment will be utterly destroyed, consumed, and bereft 
of conscious being forever. 

When I first commenced this work, I intended to 
accompany this review of the Scriptures on the des- 
tiny of men with a brief review of the writings of the 



292 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

most prominent who have written on the immortality 
of man. I find it would make this production entirely 
too voluminous. I trust this faithful compilation will 
be all-sufficient to stand upon its own merits. I hope 
such a review will not be needed. I would here 
simply say 'that I have the fullest confidence that I, 
through the grace of God, am able to successfully 
answer any argument that can be brought in favor of 
the immortality of the finally impenitent. I have no 
doubt but this theory will be virulently attacked, and 
it may be positively denounced ; but I wish it to be 
understood that if it is necessary, the remainder of 
this mortal life shall be pledged for the defense of the 
theory that the enemies of God are not immortal, 
which the Scriptures so lucidly eliminate, and which 
so strikingly justifies the ways of God to his crea- 
tures. Weakness itself, aided and protected by truth, 
can wage successful warfare against gigantic error. 
Here is my confidence. I arrogate for myself no 
powers that could make a show of defense in the 
opposite theory. It requires the greater powers to 
prove the worse the better. But in simple truth I 
may .be permitted to be bold, though I am aware of 
my diminutiveness. 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 293 



To be or not to be, is the all-absorbing question 
of humanity. From this true issue, mankind have 
been diverted. In its stead, happiness or misery 
has been falsely introduced. The contingency of 
being or no being well comports with the Author of 
being ; but the question of happiness or no happi- 
ness is nothing short of a libel on Him who gives ex- 
istences. Existence and happiness are from God ; 
sin and misery are from man directly, but remotely 
from the devil. To associate the sublime and bene- 
volent designs of the Deity with the crafty and mali- 
cious devices of the adversary, is not wise. To at- 
tribute to God a necessitated eternal existence, at- 
tended with indescribable misery, is an impeachment 
of the divine goodness. Nothing short of a principle 
of enmity, unmixed with love, could have evolved 
a falsehood so calumniating. An impeachment of 
the righteous Ruler of the universe was the diabolical 
intent ; and what better could have promised success ? 
It savors much of the damning falsehood, " Thou 
shalt not surely die." As much as to say his captious 
jealousy would frighten you from a sublimer good. 
Eat and be as gods, and have immortal independ- 
ence. Stretching forth his hand and taking the in- 
terdicted fruit, he says, Behold, I eat, and live, and 
advance myself, though of lower grade, to equality 
and converse with His sublimest work. Eat and ad- 
vance your nature, human to divine. Glorious ali- 
ment ! it advances the inferior to the superior. Had 



294 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

it not been for this virtue of virtues, my present 
superiority and intelligence had been mute as you 
knew me once inferior. Subjection is unworthy of 
such excellence. So spake the prince of evil to the 
mother of mankind. She listened, doubted, fell. 
Doubted what ? The goodness and veracity of her 
God. Deceptive falsehood ; would that it never had 
met the ear of innocence ! In cogitation deep, within 
himself he said, Innocence despoiled by guile, and 
purchased by His richest gift ; what deception can 
despoil the purchased life ? Profoundly dwelt the 
fiend upon his direful plot ; and then as quick as 
spark from smitten steel, his hideous hate this plan 
resolved. Man is immortal in his sin ; hence immor- 
tal in his misery. This believed, made immortal by 
the Supreme, leaves but a small chance for love, con- 
fidence, and adoration. It proved successful once, why 
not again ? Thus thought and thus resolved the ad- 
versary. How successful the first, humanity can tell ; 
the second can be well understood by fair comparison 
of the word of God with the belief of nearly all man- 
kind. 

Dire deception ! most subtle and complete, man's 
highest ambition, linked with Omnipotence, maligned. 
The fondness of a creature for perpetual being can 
not be excelled ; and what more to be execrated than 
an Omnipotence exerted to assure eternal misery ? 
Thus arraying the Almighty against himself; his in- 
finite benevolence and love crushed and bleeding 
by the resistless power of his almighty strength. 
What conception is less consonant with the divine 
attributes, than to suppose the Deity could produce 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 295 

a being indestructible, yet liable to dereliction ? Thus 
indirectly, yes directly, charging God with being the 
author of eternal misery. Shame on the perversion 
of human powers ; their subserviency to rebellion 
and sin can not be equaled. It would seem to be the 
prerogative and the prone aptitude of fallen humanity 
to quaff the cup of errors, to imbibe the sentiments 
of the adversary and assimilate itself with the chief 
of rebellion. What more horrifying than that devil 
or man should charge the Sovereign of the universe 
with eternal implacability and revenge — with having 
ushered into being unnumbered millions of sentient 
beings, to live in the indulgence of a corrupted na- 
ture, almost without restraint, and for the thoughts, 
words, and actions of the most darkened heathenish 
condition, unilluminated by the smallest ray of Chris- 
tian experience, example, or ethics, should for such 
a life, so unfavorable, yes, impossible for higher vir- 
tue, consign these unfortunates to a doom of endless 
misery which can not be described by human lan- 
guage, or be conceived by human intellect ? At such 
a defamation of the high and holy One, the very blood 
curdles in the veins of virtue. It is an impiety un- 
precedented, a blasphemy beyond the possibility ot 
rivalry. It manifests an ingratitude at which the 
arch-fiend himself at times blushes ; for when once 
dispossessed of his trophy, the most he dare remon- 
strate was, "Art thou come to destroy us before the 
time ?" But man, prejudiced, deluded man, in the very 
vestibule of the millennium, will presume to charge 
his Creator with an implacability which can not be 
satiated with unending torments. Professed Chris- 



2g6 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

tian, you shut the very gates of Paradise against the 
most thoughtful and tender-hearted sons and daugh- 
ters of men ; yes, you bar from a union with their 
Lord the most learned and logical in the world, who 
generally associate the consequence with the cause.. 
You disgust them with the representation of your 
God, whom you falsely declare to be the same as the 
one living, just, holy, and benevolent Jehovah. While 
he reiterates again and again, " The goodness and 
mercy of God endureth forever," you continually as- 
sert and teach that it does not ; but that he is so 
pleased with the torments of his enemies that eternity 
will be insufficient to satisfy his revenge. Shame on 
your hollow profession of love ! Deceive not yourself ; 
it is tinctured with deadliest hate. The enemy has 
too well succeeded in dropping into the fountain 
of your affections the distillation of his envenomed 
hate. Your very soul of love is drugged. The hori- 
zon of your confidence and devotion is beclouded, 
and your sun of hope is dimmed. I beseech you, di- 
vest yourself of this delusion from hell. God speaks 
the truth ; the devil lies. God says man is not im- 
mortal in his sin ; the devil says he is. Believe it, 
this insidious falsehood is designed to diminish your 
love, confidence, and devotion, as well as to engender 
a spirit of enmity toward God in all his followers. 
Eve's deception was no more complete than your 
own. Nor was her credulity much less reprehensible 
than that indulged by you. Neither can it be fos- 
tered but by diminished confidence and devotion. 
The one is a tacit charge of withholding good, the 
other of giving or doing wrong ; and both are well 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 297 

calculated to deceive. Neither the good of man nor 
the honor of God demands such a theory. The 
word of God positively denies it ; by it the divine 
attributes are impugned ; wisdom, mercy, love, and 
veracity are alike sacrificed, and man is bewildered, 
disheartened, ruined. The word of God, his chart of 
life, perverted, he wanders in the mazes' of confusion, 
and is lost in the labyrinths of error. May God in 
mercy pity the deluded ! 

If the statement of the adversary, " Thou shalt not 
surely die," were true, let us consider what would be 
the legitimate inference. Man would be immortal in 
his sin ; his misery would necessarily be eternal. A 
benevolent, thoughtful, and logical man would reason 
on this wise : Man endures immortal misery. Who 
necessitates this condition or eternal torture ? Evi- 
dently not man, for he would avoid it ; nor the devil, 
for he is not able to cause it- If man, then, has im- 
mortality in a lake of fire and brimstone, God alone 
can give and necessitate it. His reason and his 
benevolence revolt at the sentiment. As fallen and 
sinful as I am, he says, I would not act so toward my 
enemies, let alone toward my offspring. Nor do I 
believe myself more merciful than my Maker ; con- 
sequently I can not believe the Author of the universe 
would necessitate such a destiny. It is unreasonable 
and in direct opposition to every conception I have 
of God's being. What authority for such a belief? 
The Bible ? Who say so ? The most learned divines, 
whose business it is to investigate and to teach the 
same. If the most competent find this in the so- 
called word of God, I do not believe it to be a reve- 



298 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

lation from the Almighty. Pie would not calumniate 
himself. Eternal agonies imposed upon an erring 
creature ! Worse than barbarous. I have no wish to 
read a book, purporting to be from God, which charges 
him with such atrocities. God is not its author ; as 
an imposition I despise it. Thus the word of God is 
neglected, despised, rejected. Why ? Because of its 
supposed inconsistency. The rejecter grows up, is 
educated and matured without the saving, healthful, 
and hallowing influence of the word of life. So far as 
fitness for heaven is concerned, his lot might better 
have been in the darkest heathenism. If this were 
an isolated case, it might not be so awfully terrible ; 
though, in this single case, its terribleness could not 
be estimated. The majority of the great, indepen- 
dent, thinking minds of the present day are switched 
upon the declining grade to ruin. They have no 
doubt but that the theory involving the destiny of an 
unending misery, as taught by divines, is found in 
the Bible ; therefore they discredit it as the word of 
God. Can any reflecting individual wonder at the 
prevalence of Universalism, skepticism, and even of 
atheism ? Must a man be expected — yes, necessi- 
tated — to ignore his reason, his sense of justice, and 
all the finer sensibilities of his nature, and embrace 
and cherish inconsistency, absurdity, and falsehood, 
to become a Christian ? Shame on the baseness of 
the requisitions of this Christian age ! Religion calls 
for, instead of ignoring, the finest sensibilities of our 
natures. It courts the most rational and logical de- 
ductions from reason, justice, veracity, mercy, bene- 
volence, and love. There is nothing repugnant in 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 299 

Christ or his holy religion. Suspicious, indeed, if not 
basely and criminally false, is that theory which will 
not bear the most searching analysis, and receive 
the severest criticisms from every sentinel of right. 
Christianity is love. Man may investigate every be- 
lief, every creed, every maxim, every principle of earth, 
of time, of eternity, and whatever can be found an- 
tagonistic to love may be — yes, should be — set aside 
as suspicious, fallacious, and injurious. Bring the 
sentiment of an immortal sin and misery to this or- 
deal, and every principle of virtue would unite on the 
throne of eternal justice in its condemnation to an 
eternal oblivion. 

Should this work fall into the hands of any who, 
through his or others' prejudices, from false teachings 
and erroneous sentiments, has circumscribed his 
views in the narrow limits of atheism, allow him who 
has made himself a target for humanity's sake, to 
address a kindly word to such. Read the so-called 
word of God for yourself. Let God and conscience, 
if there be such, interpret, and you will find nothing 
repugnant to reason, justice, and love, in their highest 
sense. It will manifest its true origin as well as your 
own. You will find that blind chance never produced 
a creature so noble as yourself. You consult your 
watch, so faithful in its record of passing moments. 
You confide in its faithfulness, you trust to its com- 
petency ; you would not dishonor your judgment by 
attributing its powers to chance. Why ? Because 
of the adaptation of each of its parts to the whole, 
and the whole to its design. Design is evident in its 
form, its movement, and in its accomplishment. This 



300 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

design proves thought, mind. Why ? Because it is 
simply absurd to believe that any combination of cir- 
cumstances could evolve such a production, manifest- 
ing such precision, by simple chance. Then, if your 
watch needed a designer for its production and exist- 
ence, why not much more yourself, whose complication 
and whose powers are infinitely greater ? Whence 
sprang this solar system, so wonderful in its extent, 
so vast in its dimensions, so majestic in its move- 
ments — worlds on worlds of various and almost in- 
credible bulk, moving all in their revolutions and 
evolutions with inconceivable velocities, with exact 
precision and matchless harmony, each in its orbit, 
measuring its circuit through age after age, without 
the least possible variation ? Comes this wonderful 
harmony, this sublimity of movement, this passing 
grandeur of events, without design — the sport of 
chance ? Whence comes this propelling, repelling, 
restraining influence, to keep these ponderous bodies 
in movement, in harmony, in their exact relative and 
ever-varying positions ? Comes it not from an om- 
nipotent hand ? Whence comes the security, the cer- 
tainty, the harmony, and the accomplishment of this 
grand, overpowering exhibition of nature? Comes it 
not from Omniscience ? Could such a phenomenon, 
so wonderful, so astounding, be presented for inspec- 
tion, for admiration, for contemplation, but by the will 
and command of the Supreme ? Is it not more ra- 
tional to conclude that this manifestation of wisdom, 
benevolence, and power is the product of a Sovereign 
Ruler, than the result of chance ? Nature, in all its 
departments, bespeaks a God of wisdom, power, and 
love. 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 301 

Nature with all its grandeur and sublimity, with 
its majestic movements, its transcendent phenomena, 
in its multiform and various productions and presen- 
tations, speaks feebly of a great Supreme, in compa- 
rison with the revelation of the word. It is a book 
of books. Nothing short of Omniscience could have 
been its author. It purports to be a revelation from 
God and of God, of nature and of man, their origin, 
condition, and destiny. Written in various ages ot 
the world, under widely differing circumstances ; in 
times of learning, in times of grossest ignorance, and 
always amid prevailing servility to idolatry ; in the 
very noon of night, of the vilest impurity of thought, 
of word, and of life, it traces out the purest embodi- 
ment of ethics, a code of law universal, unlimited, 
and yet condensed in the smallest compass ; meeting 
the exigencies of every age, every circumstance ot 
life ; compelling the reverence of the vicious, and 
winning the cheerful obedience of the good ; honoring 
to the Creator, and always beneficial to the creature ; 
of universal authority in time, and unabated in its in- 
fluence through eternity ; suited to every relation of 
man to time and eternity, to God and to his fellow- 
man, to animate and inanimate nature ; unique in its 
purpose, symmetrical in its parts, one grand unit, em- 
bodying all interests in time and in an illimitable 
future, the glory of God, and the good of man. 
Transcendently glorious production, worthy of Om- 
niscience and unparalleled in the universe! Shall 
fallen, beclouded man deny the masterpiece, the 
honor and glory of the Master Workman ? Human- 
ity struggling in darkness for light, forbid it ! Frail, 



302 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

darkened, struggling man, I beseech you by all the 
interest and glories of a purchased immortality, deny 
not yourself in your hour of gloom the lamp of life. 
Break from the destroyer. Sunder the fetters of 
night. Allow your pathway to be illumined by the 
halo of the Sun of Righteousness. Then " shall your 
peace be as a river, and your righteousness as the 
waves of the sea." The Bible, rightly understood, is 
not repugnant, as you supposed. Its teachings are 
in harmony with its Author, and do not make him the 
author of everlasting misery. It is a transcript of 
the divine mind, and manifests the Deity as the author 
and embodiment of love and illimitable benevolence. 
Whatever charges him with the slightest departure 
from this principle is false. According to his own 
asseveration, " his goodness and mercy endureth for- 
ever ;" even to his enemies. 

The true construction and understanding of the 
word of God proves the incorrectness of the doctrine 
of the final salvation of all men ; and it removes all 
necessity for such a belief, in order to justify the ways 
of God to man. Man is a creature of volition. If 
this volition can not be restrained from acts of dis- 
obedience and rebellion, by the goodness and love of 
God, it must be by the judgment of God, if God re- 
mains the Universal Sovereign. The idea that, in 
order to preserve this dignity on the part of God, it 
is necessary to hold the rebellious in a lake of fire 
and brimstone eternally, is the absurdity that gave 
birth to the benevolent theory that all men would 
finally be saved. The latter, in my opinion, is a thou- 
sand times more justified than the former; for it is 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 303 

less dishonoring to God and far less ruinous to the 
human family. While the one may ruin its thousands, 
the other may safely be said to ruin its tens of thou- 
sands. I would infinitely rather be a Christian with 
the name of Universalist, than a Christian believing 
that my God would hold his offending creatures in 
the greatest possible tortures eternally. Nor does it 
require a tithe of the perversion and misconstruc- 
tion of the Scriptures to substantiate Universalism, ' 
as it does to make a semblance of proof of the ca- 
lumniating doctrine of eternal conscious misery. 
The one is the child of greater affection than its pa- 
rent, and has far more innocence and circumstances 
of palliation. The Scriptures declare that " God is 
love ;" but if it was true that he will hold the greater 
part of his earthly creatures, after their probation 
ceases, in eternal misery, then no pure logic can 
prove that he is not the God of hate. Whence comes 
the necessity for such an exhibition of implacability ? 
Comes it from the dignity, honor, or glory of God ? 
from the good of the saved, or from the good of 
the damned ? Most assuredly not. Then whence 
comes it ? It comes only from the foul sink of re- 
bellion to cast a reflection on the Supreme. Un- 
worthy treasure of a child of love ! Listen to the 
merciful accents of Jehovah. " O Israel ! thou hast 
destroyed thyself." "The wages of sin is death." 
"As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in 
him that dieth ; but rather that he would turn to me 
and live." Is there not in these sufficient proof that 
man is not immortal in sin, that all men will not be 
saved, and that God is not complacent with the doc- 



304 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

trine ? This is but a moiety of the Scriptures to this 
effect, Would you impel the Supreme to a course 
which he emphatically disavows ; as you would force 
the advocate of truth to the adoption of the term 
annihilation ? Some men seem to arrogate to them- 
selves the reins of government and of conscience. 

To that portion of the brotherhood of man who 
style yourselves Universalists, I would address a word 
of kindness. It would seem to me that you can not 
to your perfect satisfaction glean your system from 
the word of God. It appears like a labored effort to 
avoid the horrid doctrine of eternal conscious misery. 
I beg you not to allow your benevolent nature to 
carry you into an error in the other extreme. Truth 
is eternal. Error is error, however fondly embraced. 
Man is a moral, voluntary creature. If he has been 
constituted such by his Maker, his power of volition 
can not be restrained, or governed but by incentives ; 
and these motives must ever be resistible, or they 
will amount to compulsion, which would be equiva- 
lent to the taking away or the destruction of this 
principle, which must ever be in. full exercise, in or- 
der that man should remain a moral creature. If 
man has become disobedient, rebellious, through the 
exercise of his power of volition, and it is contrary to 
the nature of the endowment of volition to be ruled, 
is it not absolutely necessary, if he returns to alle- 
giance, he must do it with the full and unabridged 
exercise of this same power of his being ? Is it not 
according to experience that multitudes live and die in 
their opposition to the divine government ? Is it not 
positively certain that there is no probation beyond 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 305 

the limits of this mortal life ? Then, if a man dies in 
rebellion, is it not certain there remains no possibili- 
ty for reconciliation ? If there shall be no reconci- 
liation, is it not certain there can be no union ? and 
if no union, there can be no heaven for the sinner ? 
Is there not a philosophical and moral necessity for 
the destruction of the finally impenitent ? Is there 
not wisdom and mercy in the law, " The wages of 
sin is death " ? Death of what ? Our natural life ? 
No. The death of our purchased or resurrected life. 
If this dies in the second death, there can be no re- 
suscitation. Then I beseech you, let us be one in 
Christ Jesus. Let us be true and noble, yield to the 
requirement. Be penitent for our offenses, and have 
a confiding belief in the merits of Jesus and "his 
power to save all that will come to him," from a death 
which has no life. 

To the Arian, and every other class who are in the 
least tinctured with skepticism, I would repeat with 
the utmost tenderness this weighty truthful scripture, 
" There is no other name given under heaven, whereby 
we can be saved, but the name of Jesus." Jesus says, 
" Ye will not come to me that you might have life ; " 
" I am the way, the truth, and the life." H He that be- 
lieveth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." 
This is too rich a treasure to be discarded for any 
skepticism, infidelity, or even any worth of time. 
May God be able to win you to an immortal life! If 
not, you are ceitainly dead in trespasses and sins, 
which is denominated spiritually dead ; and if this 
is not counteracted, the resurrected life will fall into 
" the second death," which will know no consciousness. 



306 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

To the churches of Christ, in your distinctive de- 
nominational characteristics, I would, before I send 
this humble but honest production on its mission, ad- 
dress a kindly word, in as gentle and loving a man- 
ner as a weeping soul can couch it. Believe me, I 
have not thus written for your wounding or your 
hurt. I have, and God is my judge, written for your 
good, for your advancement in holiness, for the good 
and eternal well-being of humanity, and for the glory 
of my God. I think I have been made to realize be- 
yond my contemporaries the absurdity, the fallacy, the 
obloquy of that horrid, defaming, and love-destroying 
doctrine of immortal misery ; so repugnant to the at- 
tributes of God, so contradictory to his word, so 
opposed to reason, so obnoxious to all the finer sensi- 
bilities of a loving nature ; the very masterpiece of 
the devil's fraud, first preached in its seductive in- 
fluence in the ear of innocence in Eden, and repro- 
duced in the purchased innocence of a new probation, 
for an immortality in Christ. I beseech you with all 
the earnest, tender, loving solicitude of a brother in 
Christ, read, contemplate, digest, and appreciate this 
revelation from God (for it is all that is revealed on 
this subject in the sacred volume) of man's origin, 
condition, and destiny. Prej udice, want of candor, and 
previous education, if at all defective, are entirely un- 
worthy in the most earnest contemplation of this impor- 
tant subject. I beseech you, as you would honor your 
Maker, as you would have a right conception of his 
word, and a true understanding of the destiny of man, 
reperuse the Scriptures with prayerful attention, and 
see if they anywhere teach an immortality in sin. 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 307 

I am confident that not a passage in the entire Bible 
can be found which teaches the immortality of the 
enemies of God, save one, which is the sentence ad- 
dressed by Satan to Eve, " Thou shalt not surely die." 
Not another sentence in the entire Scriptures bearing 
the same sentiment can be found. If God is pleased 
to remove the sinner and all his sins out of view for- 
ever, why should you object? What object could 
there be for the perpetuation of such a scene ? Ask 
yourself candidly this question, and then answer it 
satisfactorily to yourself. Critically examine the word 
of God, and then tell me if you find the doctrine of 
immortality for the sinner within the sacred volume. 
Allow me to refer you to the Mosaic account of the 
formation of the earth and constitution of this human 
dispensation. From this I fhink it may reasonably 
be deduced that God has not prepared an eternal lake 
of fire and brimstone for the punishment or torture 
of any part of his creatures. If this can be shown, I 
apprehend that it will not be at once difficult to adduce, 
from the word of God, presumptive evidence that he 
will never prepare such a place. That it may be 
clearly and positively understood that, in the creation, 
God did not constitute a place for everlasting misery, 
I will transcribe the entire account contained in the 
first chapter of Genesis, and the first three verses of 
the second : 

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and 
the earth. 

2 And the earth was without form, and void ; and 
darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the 
spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 



3o8 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

3 And God said, Let there be light : and there was 
light. 

4 And God saw the light, that it was good ; and 
God divided the light from the darkness. 

5 And God called the light day, and the darkness 
he called night. And the evening and the morning 
were the first day. 

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the 
midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from 
the waters. 

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the 
waters which were under the firmament from the wa- 
ters which were above the firmament ; and it was so. 

8 And God called the firmament heaven. And 
the evening and the morning were the second day. 

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven 
be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry 
land appear : and it was so. 

io And God called the dry land earth ; and the 
gathering together of the waters called he seas ; and 
God saw that it was good. 

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, 
the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit 
after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth : 
and it was so. 

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb 
yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding 
fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind : and 
God saw that it was good. 

13 And the evening and the morning were the 
third day. 

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firma- 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 309 

merit of the heaven to divide the day from the night ; 
and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for 
days, and years ; 

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament 
of the heaven to give light upon the earth ; and it 
was so. 

16 And God made two great lights ; the greater 
light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the 
night ; he made the stars also. 

17 And God set them in the firmament of the 
heaven to give light upon the earth, 

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, 
and to divide the light from the darkness ; and God 
saw that it was good. 

19 And the evening and the morning were the 
fourth day. 

20 And God said, Let the waters- bring forth abun- 
dantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl 
that may fly above the earth in the open firmament 
of heaven. 

2 1 And God created great whales, and every living 
creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth 
abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl 
after his kind : and God saw that it was good. 

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and 
multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl 
multiply in the earth. 

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth 
day. 

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the 
living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping 
thing, and beast of the earth after his kind : and it 
was so. 



310 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

v 25 And God made the beast of the earth after his 
kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that 
creepeth upon the earth after his kind : and God saw 
that it was good. 

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, 
after our likeness : and let them have dominion over 
the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and 
over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every 
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 

27 So God created man in his own image, in the 
image of God created he him ; male and female cre- 
ated he them. 

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them* 
Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and 
subdue it : and have dominion over the fish of the 
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living 
thing that moveth upon the earth. 

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every 
herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the 
earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a 
tree yielding seed ; to you it shall be for meat. 

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every 
fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon 
the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every 
green herb for meat : and it was so. 

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, 
and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and 
the morning were the sixth day. 

chapter 11. 

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, 
and all the host of them. 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 311 

2 And on the seventh day God ended his work 
which he had made ; and he rested on the seventh 
day from all his work which he had made. 

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified 
it : because that in it he had rested from all his work 
which God created and made. 

No one that believes this a revelation from God 
will doubt but that this statement is a faithful and 
full account of the origin of this system. I am per- 
suaded that no one will presume to affirm that, in 
this revelation, there is the slightest intimation of the 
formation of an everlasting lake of fire : and I chal- 
lenge the world to produce a statement, or an inti- 
mation of such a fact, from the Bible, that God since 
the creation has, or ever will, prepare a place for the 
eternal misery of any portion of the human family. 
On the contrary, it is expressly stated, on the com- 
pletion of this wonderful creation, "And God saw eve- 
ry thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very 
good." 

After this divine statement that there was not, in 
the time of creation, an eternal lake of fire, formed 
for the torture of God's creatures ; and after an im- 
possibility to show, from God's word, the formation 
of such a place since the creation, or any evidence 
that he will ever make such a place, who can measure 
the presumption or the impiety of that man who af- 
firms that God has, or will, or ever intends to con- 
stitute such a place ? I confess I am ashamed that I 
ever believed it, and am astounded and mourn over 
the deplorable fact that the great majority of pro- 



312 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 

fessed Christians adhere to the fallacy. In the name 
of our heavenly Father, whose attributes we have so 
wantonly though unwittingly impugned, I beseech my 
brethren, of every creed, order, or sect, to reconsider 
this question. Let not prejudice, early education, or 
any association, prevent a candid, thorough investi- 
gation of this matter. If you find, after a critical re- 
vision of the Scriptures, that a fair, candid, legitimate 
construction of them will not admit of, and does not 
teach, everlasting misery for any portion of the human 
race, I beseech you, in the name of my Maker, for the 
sake of truth and virtue, for the sake of yourself, and 
the church, and humanity, discard and disavow, pri- 
vately and publicly, this specious libel on our Crea- 
tor. On the other hand, if, after a candid, thorough 
review of this matter, you find the view I advocate 
unscriptural and untrue, dishonoring to God, opposed 
to justice, love, and benevolence, injurious or ruin- 
ous to morals or mankind, in the name of God and 
humanity, denounce it ; leave not an argument or 
force unemployed to demolish it. If it is not of God, 
it will come to naught ; but if it is true, beware, 
" lest you find yourself fighting against God." 

With the earnest, devout, and continuous prayers 
to, and with a reverential trust in, Almighty God, I 
send this humble, unpretending production on its 
mission, trusting that its flight may be wondrous, 
and, if true, that it may pierce the very vitals of error, 
and prove a leaven to leaven the lump. Amen. 



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